
Class __ 
Book_- 



PULPIT POLITICS; 



ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION ON SLAVERY, 



DISTURBINa IXFLUEXCES 



a.m:erica.i^ u]^^io]Nr 



BY PROF. DAVID' CHRISTY, 

AUTHOR OP "COTTON IS KING," "ETHIOPIA," "CHEMISTRY OF AGRICULTURE," ETC. 



FIFTH EDITION. 




CINCINNATI: 

FARAN & McLEAN, PUBLISHERS 

1863. 



.C6-6-r<5 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G2, by 

FABAN 4 McLEAK, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. 



\ 



INTRODUCTION. 



In a former work — Cotton is King — the author has discussed 
the Economical Relations of American Slavery. That production 
was written in a conservative spirit, and with the view of laying 
before the public, North and South, the facts necessary to demon- 
strate the inestimable value of the Union, and the wide-spread 
ruin that must follow its dissolution. 

In another volume — Ethiopia — written with the design of 
promoting African Colonization, the author attempted to show, 
among other things, that, of all the population torn from Africa 
by the slave-trade and consigned to slavery, the colored people 
of the United States alone had made sufficient progress to justify 
the hope that any portion of the race were capable of carrying 
back a Christian civilization to the land of their fathers. 

The present volume — Pulpit Politics — aims at presenting 
the Ecclesiastical Legislation on Slavery, at the North, in its dis- 
turhing influences upon the American Union. The aim here is 
equally conservative ; the design being to place before the people 
all that is known on the subject of slavery, in its bearings on 
the moral progress of the African race. By this means it is 
believed that the public will be able to judge, with greater ac- 
curacy, how far the action of the Churches may have been in 
accordance, strictly, with the legitimate duties of the Gospel 
ministry ; or how far it may have partaken of a fanatical char- 
acter, calculated unnecessarily to disturb the peace of the Church, 
and endanger the safety of the Union. 

In selecting a title for this work — Pulpit Politics — it is not 
intended to bring the charge of political preaching against tho 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

majority of clergymen. The moral mania of abolitionism has 
by no means been universally prevalent among the members of 
the sacred profession. On the contrary, there have been very 
many of them, who have acted on the principle that the king- 
dom of their Divine Master "is not of this ^yorld;" and who 
have, consequently, resolutely opposed all ecclesiastical legisla- 
tion in civil affairs. 

If it be claimed as a right, that the divine shall review the 
action of the civilian ; it is equally the right of the civilian to 
review the action of the divine. In the pulpit, proclaiming the 
Gospel of peace, the minister is sacred ; on the stump, or in the 
pulpit, announcing his political opinions, he is only a politician ; 
and, there, his sacred character does not attach to him. Hence 
it is, that a political parson is always treated as a mere politician, 
and rightfully loses his influence as a divine. 

The class of clergymen who have conducted the controversy on 
slavery, and forced many of the Churches into the vortex of aboli- 
tionism, have long been directing attention to civil affairs, and 
asking for changes in the Constitution and laws of the country in 
relation to that institution. In turn, it is now proposed to bring 
the action of the Churches, in reference to emancipation, before 
the bar of public opinion, there to be judged as to the wisdom of 
their policy, by the fruits it has borne. 

If it shall be found, on contrasting the condition of the African 
race throughout the world, that fewer obstacles to their evangeli- 
zation exist in the United States than anywhere else ; if it shall 
be found, indeed, that no obstacles to the accomplishment of that 
object exist, except such as have been created by the inconsiderate 
zeal of clergymen themselves ; then the country must be convinced 
that the agitation in favor of emancipation has been uncalled for, 
and not necessary to the discharge of any christian duty toward 
the colored people ; and that Christian ministers, therefore, have 
been inexcusable in agitating the subject of slavery, so as to dis- 
tract and divide the Churches, and lead to the ruin of the country. 

A word in reference to the causes which gave to abolitionism its 
early advantages and rapid growth. When the w^ork of foreign 
missions had been fairly commenced, the hope began to be enter- 
tained that the progress of the Gospel would be equally as rapid 



INTRODUCTION. V 

as its extension over the world had been in Apostolic times. 
This expectation did not originate with the less informed but 
zealous-minded christian. It was the out-growth of a high intelli- 
gence, a deep'toned piety, a broad philanthropy, and a strong 
faith in the promises of God. But the mind that conceived it was 
unendowed with the knowledge of future events, and knew nothing 
of the purposes of the Almighty — knew nothing of the obstacles 
to the extension of the Gospel existing among the heathen. On 
this point, almost a half century since, the declaration was made, 
"that the energies of Christendom, wisely directed, and attended 
with the blessing of the Spirit, might send the Gospel over the 
world in a quarter of a century." This hopeful sentiment was 
uttered in connection with the action of the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and was, at first, only the 
expression of an individual ; * but it was accepted by the Pruden- 
tial Committee of the Board, and formally adopted by the Board 
itself, at its meeting in 1816.+ The pulpit of America was then 
strongly represented from the Theological Schools of Great Britain. 
The missions in the West Indies had been greatly hindered, in 
their success among the slaves, by the hostility of the planters. 
In consequence of this, slavery, among the British people, was 
considered incompatible with the progress of the Gospel. This 
view, based upon the results in the West Indies alone, seems to 
have been adopted by the American ministry without examination, 
and accepted as a theory of universal application. Gradually 
dijQFused as a floating sentiment upon the surface of society, it led 
to a common conviction that, in some way not explainable, slavery 
was an evil which demanded eradication as a preliminary step to 
the evangelization of the African race. Those holding this opinion, 
seem to have adopted a logic something like this : As slavery can 
not prevail under the universal domination of the Gospel, there- 
fore the abolition of slavery is essential to the world's conversion 
to Christianity. In this way they failed to view the Gospel as a 
curative remedy for human degradation and indolence, and as 
capable of lifting the lowly of the race to an elevation whci-e 



*Ilev. Dr. Worcester, as quoted in the Memorial Volume of the Board, 18G1, 
tMemoi'ial Volume, pages 130, 131. 



Vi INTRODUCTION. 

slavery might no longer be necessary to the promotion of industry, 
and would, therefore, become a useless institution among men. 

The christian men who then entertained these views, never 
counseled violence as a means of overthrowing American slavery ; 
and uniformly expressed their aversion to the aims and actions of 
the abolitionists. But in admitting that slavery presented ob- 
stacles to the progress of the Gospel, and that emancipation was 
a measure that should be promoted by all lawful means, they 
were but preparing a soil upon which the abolitionists could sow 
their seed, and reap an abundant harvest. 

That a radical error prevailed upon this question, among good 
men, is demonstrated by the history of foreign missions during 
the last half century. The spread of the Gospel in heathen 
countries, has made no such rapid progress as the projectors of 
foreign missionary enterprises anticipated would attend the labors 
of the good men sent forth to that work. The facts in this volume 
will show, that slavery in America, by freeing its subjects from 
all connection with heathen superstitions and idolatries, and in 
having trained them in the use of the English language, has ac- 
complished, for four millions of people, once barbarous, what all 
the foreign missions in the world have done for less than one-fifth 
of that number of heathen ; and that the actual number of con- 
verts, among the colored people of the Slave States, is nearly 
double that of all the converts in the whole of the heathen mis- 
sions of Protestant Christendom. 

The burden of the ecclesiastical legislation of the United States 
on slavery, has been based upon the theories started in Great 
Britain. It is well, therefore, that some allusion should be made 
to them here. The principal one, as argued by Mr. Buxton, in 
1823, and stated by Mr. Canning, is as follows : " The continuance 
of slavery, and the principles of the Christian religion are incom- 
patible. " '■■ In the course of the debates Mr. Canning said : 

" Religion ought to control the acts and to regulate the consciencca 
of governments, as well as of individuals; but when it is put forward 
to serve a political purpose, however laudable, it is done, I think, after 
the example of ill times; and I can not but remember the ill objects 

• Canning's Select Speeches, page 409. 



INTRODUCTION. VH 

to wliicb in those times such a practice was applied If it 

be meant that in the Christian religion there is a special denunciation 
of slavery — that slavery and Christianity can not exist together — I 
think the honorable gentleman himself must admit that the proposi- 
tion is historically false ; and again I must say, that I can not consent 
to the confounding, for a political purpose, what is morally true with 
■what is historically false. One peculiar characteristic of the Chris- 
tian dispensation, if I must venture in this place upon such a theme, 
is, that it has accommodated itself to all states of society, rather than 
that it has selected any particular state of society for the peculiar ex- 
ercise of its influence. If it has added lustre to the sceptre of the 
sovereign, it has equally been the consolation of the slave. It applies 
to all ranks of life, to all conditions of men ; and the sufferings of 
this world, even to those upon whom they press most heavily, are ren- 
dered comparatively indifferent by the prospect of compensation in 
the world of which Christianity affords the assurance. True it cer- 
tainly is, that Christianity generally tends to elevate, not to degrade, 
the character of man ; but it is not true, in the specific sense conveyed 
in the honorable gentleman's Resolution ; it is not true, that there is 
that in the Christian religion which makes it impossible that it should 
coexist with slavery in the world. Slavery has been known in all 
times, and under all systems of religion, whether true or false. -^ . . . . 
" The honorable gentleman can not wish more than I do, that under 
this gradual operation, under this widening diffusion of light and lib- 
erality, the spirit of the Christian religion may effect all the objects 
he has at heart. But it seems to me that it is not, for the practical 
attainment of his objects, desirable that that which may be the in- 
fluencing spirit should be put forward as the active agent. "When 
Christianity was introduced into the world, it took its root amidst the 
galling slavery of the Roman Empire ; more galling in many respects 
(though not precisely of the same character,) than that of which the 
honorable gentleman, in common, I may say, with every friend of 
humanity, complains. Slavery at that period gave to the master the 
power of life and death over his bondsman : this is undeniable — 
known to every body. ^ Ita servus homo est!' are the words put by 
Juvenal into the mouth of the fine lady who calls upon her husband 
to crucify his slave. If the evils of this dreadful system nevertheless 
gradually vanished before the gentle but certain influence of Chris- 
tianity, and if the great author of the system trusted rather to this 

* Canning's Select Speeches, pages 403, 404. 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

gradual operation of tlie principle than to any immediate or direct 
precept, I think parliament would do more wisely rather to rely upon 
the like operation of the same principle, than to put forward the 
authority of Christianity in at least a questionable shape. The name 
of Christianity ought not to be thus used, unless we are prepared to 
act in a much more summary manner than the honorable gentleman 
himself proposes." 

In referring to the dangers of the measure proposed, Mr. Can- 
ning gave the following eloquent and prophetic warning of the 
consequences of removing the shackles from the barbarous negro, 
and instead of emancipation urged a system of religious instruc- 
tion for his moral elevation : 

"Sir, we must remember that we are dealing with a being, posses- 
sing the form and strength of a man, but the intellect only of a child. 
To turn him loose in the manhood of his physical strength, in the 
maturity of his physical passions, but in the infancy of his uninstructed 
reason, would be to raise up a creature resembling the splendid fiction 
of romance ; the hero of which can sketch a human form, with all the 
corporeal capabilities of a man, and with the thews and sinews of a 
giant; but being unable to impart to the work of his hands a percep- 
tion of right and wrong, he finds too late that he has only created a 
more than mortal power of doing mischief, and himself recoils from 
the monster of his own creation."* 

It is time that the slavery question was disposed of forever. 
Its agitation has done a fatal work. The Church is in fragments ; 
the nation in ruins. If the author's labors will tend to the heal- 
ing of the divisions in the one, and the reconstruction of the other, 
he will be amply compensated for his toil. 

* Canning's Select Speeches, page 421. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 3 

CHAPTER I. 

British theories of African Evangelization, as derived from the effects op the 
Slave Trade and British Colonial Slavery 17 

Early conditiou of Africa, 17 ; efforts for its redemption, 17 ; Lord Mansfield's de- 
cision, 18; Granville Sharp's achievement, 18 ; helpless condition of the liberated 
negroes, 19; founding of Sierra Leone, 19; liberality of the laws of Mr, Sharp's 
colony, 19; rebellion on the change of laws, 20 ; government take the colony in 
charge, 20 ; missions for the benefit of the colony, 20; their failure on account 
of slave trade, 20 ; eff'ects of England's abolition of slave trade, 21 ; additional 
missions, 21 ; all missions unsuccessful while slave trade continued, 21 ; increase 
of slave trade, 21 ; theories based upon these results, 21 ; abolition of slavery in 
West Indies demanded, 22 ; war against slavery popular in Great Britain, 22 ; 
emancipation expected to be a profitable measure, 22 ; the results very different 
from the expectations, 22 ; theory that evangelization of Africa required the 
suppression of the slave trade true, 22 ; measures based on this theory, 22 ; col- 
onization and Niger expedition, 22 ; moral degradation of population in West 
Indies, 23 ; missions for its Christianization eftcouraged by Parliament, 23 ; great 
moral degradation of Jamaica, 23; opposition of the planters to missions, 24; 
emancipation put an end to persecution, 24; history of missions in the several 
islands — St. Vincents, 25; Barbadoes, 26; Virgin Islands, 27; Bermudas, 27; 
Bahamas, 28 ; St. Thomas, St. Jan, St. Croix, 29 ; Jamaica, 29 ; Antigua, 30 ; 
some favorable results of emancipation on the missions, 30 ; some unfavorable 
results of emancipation, 31 ; colonies not all hostile to missions, 31 ; missions in 
the West Indies during slavery, not unsuccessful, 32 ; emancipation demanded 
as a means of more rapid missionary progress, 32 ; remarks, 32 ; extent of the 
slave trade with Jamaica, 33; cruelties of its slavery, 33 ; unfavorable character 
of early settlers of Jamaica, 34; theories deduced from the whole of the facts 
stated, 34. 

CHAPTER II. 

Examination op the errors in the British theories, as applied to American 
Slavery before West India Emancipation 35 

SECTION I. 

That the Slave Trade is incompatible with African Evangelization 35 

This theory sustained as far as regards Africa, 35 ; the slave trade in its more ex- 
tended results on the moral condition of Africa, 36 ; its origin and extent, 36 ; 
condition of the Christian world at that date, 37 ; Reformation then in its in- 
fancy, 37 ; Samuel J. Mills, and the origin of American missions, 37 ; Isaac Tay- 
lor on the progress of early Christianity, 37 ; wisdom of the measures devised for 
conducting foreign missions, 38; Providential interpositions in behalf of the 
African race, 38 ; part of the race taken into contact with Christian civilization, 
and missionaries sent to the other part in Africa itself, 38 ; difficulties to be over- 

(ix) 



X CONTENTS. 

come in that field, 39 ; lessons learned from the results, 39 ; Africa can only be 
redeemed by African men, 39; the slave trade a means of placing them where 
they could be prepared for this work, 40 ; Rev. Samuel Crowther a case in illus- 
tration of this point, 40; the barbarian brought to the Christian, 41 ; the moral 
effects of his new relations, 41; refusal of some Churches to accept the charge 
of the care of the souls of the Africans, excepting they were liberated from 
slavery, 42 ; subsequent strifes and divisions of these Churches, 42, 43 ; slavery 
unaccompanied by Christianity, not an element of moral progress, 44 ; mission 
of the slave trade, 44; results of neglecting the teachings of Providence — upon 
France — upon England, 44 ; United States more fully met the divine demands 
as to the moral culture of the negroes, 44 ; the British theory, as to the slave 
trade being incompatible with the Gospel, true, as applied to Africa directly, 45 ; 
its indirect action a grand demonstration of the manner in which God can bring 
good out of evil, 45. 

SECTION II. 

That Slavery, wherever it prevails, is adverse to an increase of population, 45 

Review of the history of the slave trade, 45 ; the blacks increase under American 
slavery and decrease under British slavery, 46 ; the controversy on this point, 
46 ; Buxton's theory true as to British West Indies, but untrue as to United States, 
46 ; differences in the slavery of the West Indies and the United States, 47 ; 
theory proved as to West Indies, disproved as to United States, 47. 

SECTION III. 

That Slavery presents an insuperaple barrier to the Evangelization op the 
Africans subjected to its control 48 

Investigations here limited to a period preceding West India Emancipation, 48; 
plan of investigation, 48 ; American slavery affords a favorable means of settling 
this theory, 48; slaves and freemen here brought face to face, 48 ; Four topics 
discussed, '49; Topic First — character, opinions, and measures of the founders of 
the government, 49 ; differences of character between them and the early set- 
tlers of Jamaica, 50; the barbarism of the negro a barrier to colonial progress, 
60 ; resolutions of colonists in reference to a redress of grievances, 61 ; their 
effects upon British commerce, 51 ; opposition to slave trade designed to cripple 
British trade, 52; emancipation not contemplated by colonies, 52 ; Declaration 
of Independence designed to apply to the white population in its relations to the 
British people, and not to include Indians and Negroes, 52; this view true, be- 
cause they were excluded from citizenship by the Constitution, 53 ; elated views 
attending success of Revolution, as to value of personal liberty, 53 ; fundamental 
principles partly overlooked, 53 ; Legislative action in reference to emancipation, 
63 ; action of the Churches in relation thereto, 54 ; Southern clergymen acqui- 
escing conditionally, 54; the great problem to be solved — the possibility of the 
conversion of the negroes while in slavery, 54; the progress already made in this 
work, 65; Topic Second — Opinions of Revolutionary statesmen on slavery, etc., 
65; opinions of Mr. Jefferson on negro equality, emancipation, etc., 56 ; of Dr. 
Franklin, 66 ; emancipation without instruction dangerous, 57 ; no disposition to 
emancipate in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, 57; sentiments of 
founders of the Republic adverse to emancipation, 57 ; Topic Third — elVects of 
freedom upon the negroes of the United States, previous to West India Emanci- 
pation, 67 ; ecclesiastical legislation up to 1830 conservative, but indicating a 
clerical disposition to rule in civil affairs, 58; moral culture of free negroes neg- 
lected, 58; their degradation indicated by prison statistics in the free States, 5.^ 
Boston Prison Discipline Society's Reports, 61 ; negligence of clergymen in rela- 
tion to free colored people, 02 ; Topic Fourth — contrast between negroes North 
and South, 62; freedom without the means of moral elevation — restraint with 
the means of moral progress, 62 ; carelessness of clergymen in noting facts, 63 ; 
moral progress of the l)!acks at the South overlooked, 63; the favorable results 
of the labors of the Methodists among the slaves, 64; important statistics on this 
subject, 64, 65, 66 ; the success of the Methodists disprove the British theory, 67 j 
important deductions, 68 ; delusions of anti-slavery clergymen, 69. 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER III 

Examination of the errors in the British theories as APrLiED to American 
Slavery after West India Emancipation 70 

SECTION I. 

The circitmstances under ■ct'hich Abolition took its rise in the United States, 70 

Colonization too tardy a remedy for the philanthropy of the times, 70 ; it is opposed 
by abolitionists, 71 ; American Anti-Slavery Society organized, 71 ; its efficiency 
and fanatical zeal, 71 ; colonization greatly depressed, 71 ; the doctrine that 
slavery is sinful, progressing, 72; slavery had been viewed as a moral evil, but 
not in'the sense of being sinful, 72; the new doctrine gains access to the eccle- 
siastical courts, 72 ; no ditferenee essentially between anti-slavery and abolition, 72. 

SECTION II. 

What the early anti-slavery writers taught in relation to the Bible and 
Slavery 73 

First impulse given to abolition by attempts to purge the Church of slavery, 73; 
the doctrines advocated by the Christian Intelligencer, 73 ; its plan of operations, 
73 ; »haracter of the men who commenced the anti-slavery agitation, 75 ; they 
refuse free discussion, 75 ; remarks upon their teachings and plan of action, 76 ; 
slaveholder ranked with slave-trader by them, 80 ; American slavery pronounced 
more horrible than any ever existing, 81; this statement historically false, 81 ; 
absurd views of Apostolic action on slavery, 82-87; denial of the plenary inspira- 
tion of the Apostles, 84 ; remarks on this strange assumption, 84-90 ; perplexity 
of the editor in proving slavery a sin per se, 91 ; further remarks on the editor's 
perplexites, 93-96 ; theory denying the practicability of the mental and moral 
culture of the slaves, 96 ; Geological anecdote illustrative of the subject on hand, 
97 ; preaching on slavery required by a Presbytery, 98; practical results of declar- 
ing slavery sinful, 98. 

SECTION III. 

How THE Abolitionists were met by arguments against their Bible theories... 99 

Conservative spirit holding abolition in check, 99 ; views of Dr. Bangs. 99 ; of 
Bishops Emery and Hedding, 100; Dr. Fisk, 100; Dr. Bond, 100; Prof. Stuart, 
101; Dr. Clarke, 101, 102; Dr. Fisk, 103 ; Dr. Elliott, 104; Board of Bishops, 104 ; 
complaint against the press, 106; Dr. Channing, 107; Princeton Review — it 
predicts disunion as a result of abolition, 109. 

SECTION IV. 

Inquiries into the difference op degrees of success attending the attempts to 
Evangelize the African race throughout the world 108 

Importance of the inductive system of reasoning, 108; especially as applied to 
slavery, 109 ; obstacles to African evangelization throughout the world — in South 
Africa, 110; in West Africa, 125 ; in Cuba, 140 ; in Hayti, 140 ; in British West 
Indies, 143 ; in Mendi, West Africa, 154; in French West India islands, 168; in 
United States and Canada, 170 ; moi-al condition of free colored people in United 
States, 171 ; Gerritt Smith on this point, 172 ; New York Tribune, 173 ; Rev. H. 
W. Beecher, 173; views unf\ivorable to emancipation, 175; emancipation de- 
manded by abolitionists as a means of elevation, 175; evidences of neglect of 
free colored people at the North, 175, 176 ; disruption of Methodist Church un- 
favorable to its continued influence over the blacks North, 177 ; the Bishops re- 
buke the abolition clergymen for their neglect, 178 ; decrease of colored members 
North, 178; colored prejudice against the whites by abolitionists, 179 ; infidelity 
among the colored men North, 180 ; persistent piety of religious colored men, 
180; the African Methodist Church oroianizations and their encouraging success, 
180, 181, 182; sound views of their Bishop as to Constitutional law, 182, 183 ; 
the African Baptist churches, 184; statistics in full not obtained, 184; violent 
resolutions of one Association, 185 ; obstacles to the moral progress of the free 



Xll CONTEXTS. 

colored people, 186, 187; Canada, its discouraging missionary aspects, 187, 188 ; 
Eev. Mr. King, and his encouraging labors, 189; Colonel Kobert Lachlan, and 
his public services, note, 189; general condition of Canadian free colored people, 
as to morals, as shown in Colonel Lachlan's Report, 189-194; Elgin Association, 
194 ; remonstrance of the people of Chatham against inllux and settlement of 
free negroes, 194-197; response of colored people, 197; the municipal council 
of the Western District remonstrating also, 197 ; Colonel Prince, and the colored 
people, 198-201 ; Grand Jury presentation against the colored people, 202 ; judge 
coincides with jury, 202 ; remarks of the author, 20o ; obstacles in connection 
•with American slavery, 204; favorable testimony of New York Evangelist, 204; 
ol mission board of Louisiana Conference, 205 ; other testimony, 206; of Presby- 
tery of Roanoke, Virginia, 206 ; of Presbytery of South Carolina, 207 ; of Mobile 
Tribune, 209 ; of Report of Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 210-213 ; testi- 
timony of Rev. Dr. Elliott, 213; of Dr. Bond, 214. 

SECTION V. 

Inteeesting facts in relation to the Methodist Episcopai, Church and its Eule 
ON Slavery 215 

Prominence of Methodist Episcopal Church in the work of African evangeliEation, 
215: its early success, 215 : its original Rule on slavery soon modified, 216 ; its 
change corresponding with Mr. Wesley's Rule for West Indies, 217; historical 
statement by Bishop Hedding, relating to Rnle, 217; confirmed by Dr. Elliott, 

218 ; Rule for West Indies, adopted in England, 219 ; stringent Rule for United 
States, first adopted by Dr. Coke, 219 ; Rule motlified to suit the Southern States, 

219 ; final settlement of Rule, in 1816, 219 ; influence of abolitionism in disturb- 
ing the harmony of the Church, 220 ; colored membership in Church when dis- 
ruption occurred, 221 ; powerful appeal of Eev. Dr. Capers in behalf of Southern 
missions among the slaves, 222. 

SECTION VI. 

Interesting facts connected with the Congregational and Baptist Churches op 
the United States in their relations to Slavery 224 

Congregational Churches decidedly anti-slavery, 224 ; their own admitted inefiS- 
ciency as compared with other religious bodies, 225-227 ; Baptist Churches in the 
Northern States decidedly anti-slavery, 227 ; their spiritual dearth as described 
by some of their religious newspapers, 228; remarks on these admissions, 229 ; 
opinions of the editor of Christian Intelligencer, that there may be too much 
preaching on slavery, 229. 

SECTION VII. 

Results of the Foreign Missionary work of the American Chcrches, as compared 
with the results of their Domestic Missions among the Slaves of thb 
United States 230 

1. Methodist Episcopal Church, 230 ; 2. American Baptist Missionary Union, 231 ; 
3. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 233 ; 4. American Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions, 233; 5. Board of Missions of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church, 234 ; 6. American Missionary Association, 235 ; 7. Reformed Prot- 
estant Dutch Church, 236 ; contrast of the whole with missions among the slaves 
— the results startling, 237. 

SECTION VIII. 

General results of the Missionary efforts among the African race, in Freedoji 
AND IN Slavery, placed in contrast 238 

Results of missions in West Indies, 239 ; in South Africa, 239; in West Africa, and 
African islands, 240; in Canada, imperfect, 240; total in all these fields, 240; 
contrast of these results with those in the slave States, bring out astonishing 
results, 240. * 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

SECTION IX. 
Contrast of all the Missionary force employed by Protestant Christendom, 

WITH THE RESULTS OF THE MISSIONS IN THE SlAYE StaTES OF THE UnITED 

States 24U, 241 

SECTION X. 

Contrast op the success op the Scottish American Presbyterian Churches, with 
that of the Missionaries in the Southern Slave States 241 

SECTION XL 

Contrast op the success op the General Assembly Peesbytkrians, with that op 
THE Missionaries in the Southern States 243 

CONCLUDING SECTION. 

The Christian character of the converts in the missions among the heathen, 
contrasted with that op the converted slaves in the United States.... 24:i 

Ignorance of the Church in relation to the character of the negro race, 243 ; degra- 
dation of Africa elicited Christian sympathy, 243 ; difficulties surrounding the 
question of African evangelization, 243 ; free negroes of the North degraded, 244 ; 
encouraging progress of the Gospel among the slaves, 244 ; erroneous views of 
African Christian converts, 244 ; the Christian instruction and Church discipline 
of slaves identical with the rules observed North, 245 ; testimony of Mr. Pierce, 
in Atlantic Monthly, as to high Christian character of slaves at Fortress Monroe, 
245 ; Christian attainments do not necessarily qualify for civil duties, 246 ; im- 
portant testimony of American Board on this question, 24G ; comparison of Chris- 
tian character of heathen converts with that of converts in Christian countries, 
247 ; the standard not so high, 247; slave converts at least equal to heathen con- 
verts, 248 ; heathen converts not yet prepared for self-government, 248 ; slave 
converts in precisely similar condition, 248 ; African race nowhere capable of 
self-government, but every where sustained by superior race, 249; essential 
means of conversion and salvation supplied to slaves, 249; testimony of Ameri- 
can Board, 250; ultra views, and strange misrepresentations of the clergy, in 
1857, -note, 251 ; superior advantages of American slaves over population in 
heathen countries, 252 ; Isaac Taylor on the progress of early Christianity, 252 ; 
its success where Jews and Jewish Scriptures were present — its failure among 
barbarous peoples, 253 ; this historical fact illustrates the reason why American 
slaves are more accessible to the Gospel than the heathen populations of Asia, 
253 ; this lesson teaches the great importance of modern missions in giving the 
Scriptures to every nation, tongue, and language under heaven, 253. 

CH AFTER IV. 

African Slavery and African Emancipation in their epfkcts, respectively, upon 
the national welfare of the caucasians 255 

SECTION L 

Effects op Emancipation in Brazil, Mexico, and the South American Eepub- 
Lics 255 

SECTION II. 

Effects op Emancipation in the Island op Hayti 259 

SECTION IIL 

Effects op Emancipation in the British West India Islands 2C5 

Contradictory testimony as to effects of West India emancipation, 265 ; the separa- 
tion of the question important to its comprehension, 265 ; Jamaica taken as a 
type of the whole, 265 ; its exports from 1772 to 1860, 266 ; explanatory remarks 
on these facts, 266; mistakes corrected, 267; the increasing prosperity due to 



XIV CONTENTS. 

imported coolie labor, not to negro free labor, 267; this proved bv statistics of 
certain islands, 268; Jamaica without coolie labor, and with black free labor 
alone, is still declining in its exports, 269 ; facts as to Barbadoes, 269 ; remarks on 
preceding facts, 269; other testimony confirmatory of the failure of emancipa- 
tion in its expected* results,. 270, 271 ;' effects of emancipation upon the national 
welfare of Caucasians most injurious, and of no advantage to Africans, 272.- 

CHAPTER V. 

West India Emaxcipatiox a total failure in its expected results 273 

SECTION I. 

General condition of the West India Islands at this moment 273 

SECTION II. 

Some interesting facts and speculations in reference to the introduction of 
Coolies into the West Indies 291 

SECTION III. 

The social, moral, and industrial condition of Jamaica, as illustrating thb 
effects op Emancipation where it is unaccompanied bt adequate means of 
moral progress 296 

SECTION IV. 

The civil position of the Planters under Emancipation, and the causes of theih 
ruin 304 

SECTION V. 

Effects of Emancipation upon the moral and physical condition of the negroes 
IN THE British West India Islands, as compared with that of Slavery upon 
the same race IN the United States 330 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Legislation of the General Assembly Presbyterian Church on Slavery, 343 

SECTION I. 
Early Legislation on the subject op Slavery 343 

SECTION II. 

The Legislation of the General Assembly (0. S.,) after the division op the 
Church M6 

SECTION III. 

The Legislation of the General Assembly (N. S.,) after the division- op the 
Church 351 

SECTION IV. 

Remarks on the Ecclesiastical Legislation of the General Assembly Presby- 
terians 355 

CHAPTER VII. 

Legislation of the Scottish American Presbyterian Churches on Slavery.... 338 

SECTION I. 
The Legislation of the Associate Synod of North America on Slavery 358 



CONTENTS. XV 

SECTION II. 
The Legislation of the Associate Eefokmed Synod of the "West on Slavery. 361 

SECTION III. 
The Legislation of the Eefoemed Peesbyterian Church on Slavery 364 

SECTION IV. 

The Legislation of the United Presbyterian Church on Slavery 369 

SECTION V. 
OpisiOns of British Churches on American Slavery 375 

SECTION VI. 
Brief remarks on the foregoing Legislation 380 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church and Slavery 383 

Eemarks on its ecclesiastical action 418 

CHAPTER IX. 

Congregational Churches and Slavery 421 

Remarks on their ecclesiastical legislation 425 

CHAPTER X. 

Movements of the Abolitionists , 426 

SECTION I. 

Rise of Political Abolitionism and the unconstitutional teachings op its lead- 
ers 426 

Ecclesiastical legislation on slavery designed to transfer the subject to the arena 
of politics, 426 ; the scheme successful, 426 ; the basis laid was accepted by aboli- 
tionists, 426 ; this action created alarm at the South, 427 ; measures adopted to 
counteract the dangers threatened, 427 ; Nullification and tho Tariff a pretext, 
427 ; abolition claimed the right to use both moral and political means for the 
overthrow of slavery, 429 ; the principles of the Liberty party, and also of the 
Garrisonians, 430 ; abolitionism in the Presidential campaigns, 430 ; abolition 
Convention of 1841 in Ohio, and its resolutions and address, 431-434 ; abolition 
Convention in New York, its ultra resolutions advising negroes to steal, etc., 434; 
opinions of Mr. Birney in 1843, 435 ; in 1844, 436 ; speech of Mr. Chase, 437-440 ; 
South-Westcrn Liberty Convention, 1845, at Cincinnati, 440 ; speech of Mr. Bir- 
ney, of IMr. Wills, of Judge Stevens, resolutions, address, 440-442 ; remarks on 
the incendiary productions of these men, 442^51 ; notice of the dogma that 
"slavery is the creature of local law," 443 ; Hon. J. W. Stevenson on this point, 
443; he quotes Lord Stowell as repudiating the doctrine, 444; he notices other 
cases illustrative of his views, 445-448; Mr. Clay on abolitionism, 44§; argu- 
ment of Charles O'Connor in Lemmon case, 451-456. 

SECTION IL 

The Slavery agitation in Congress 456 

Abolition in 1835, the offspring of ecclesiastical action, 456 ; political abolitionism 
not then organized, 456 ; abolition used as a means of promoting the sectional 
interests of New England, 456 ; General Jackson's condemnation of abolition in 
his message, 457; abolition petitions in Congress, 458; debates upon them, 459-485. 



XVI CONTEXTS. 

remarks on the debates, 485 ; on Mr. Slade's avowal of the necessity of abolition to 
prevent the ascendency of the South to the injury of the East, 485 ; the West not 
to be gained to the East on account of physical obstacles to trade in that direction, 
hence abolition, as a moral lever, was necessary to dissever it from the South, 
487 ; the means of accomplishing this had been supplied by the Churches in 
generating and fostering abolition, 487 ; the West weaned from the South would 
leave the East triumphant in its protective policy, 487; secession threatened by 
Boston ians through their representative, as early as 1811, 488 : I»Ir. Adams and 
Mr. Madison on the right of secession, 488, 489; secession never popular, 490; 
it ruined Mr. Webster's prospects for the Presidency, 490 ; remarks on other 
speakers, 490-492 ; burning of "Cotton is King," note, 492; remarks on Mr. 
Johnson's charge of conspiracy against abolitionists, 493 ; manifesto of Mr. Adams 
and others, threatening dissolution of the Union, 494, 495 ; South also threaten- 
ing dissolution, per Mr. Wise, 496. 

SECTION III, 

Opi.vioxs of Individuals, etc., eelating to the stjbjf.ct of Slavery, as illustkatixo 
THE Abolition movement 501 

SECTION lY. 

Movements North and South pkecipitating civil war 522 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Cotton Crop in its relations to American Commerce 549 

SECTION I. 

Early movements of Great Britain to retrieve her losses consequent upon West 
India Emancipation 549 

SECTION II. 

Condition op Cotton Question in 1850 561 

SECTION III. 

Pbogbess of events connected with Cotton Culture after 1850, and their results 
at the opening of 1860 565 

SECTION IV. 

Agencies engaged in promoting measures tending to destroy American Commerce, 

BY lessening the DEPENDENCE OF EUROPE UPON US FOR COTTON 573 

CHAPTER XII. 

Pulpit Politics in its practical application to Public affairs 592 

SECTION I. 
The Clergy of New England and the War of 1812 592 

SECTION II. 

The thrfj: thousand and fifty Clergymen of New England, and the Congress of 
1854 597 

SECTION III. 
The Clergymen of Chicago, and the Hon. S. A. Douglass 604 

SECTION IV 

Pulpit Politics in its practical results 610 

CONCLUSION 620 



CHAPTER I. 

BRITISH THEORIES ON AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION, AS DERIVED FROM 
THE EFFECTS OF THE SLAVE TRADE AND BRITISH COLONIAL 
SLAVERY. 

The condition of Africa had long enlisted the sympathies of 
the benevolent, before anything was attempted for the moral and 
social elevation of its inhabitants. Its degradation was known 
to be extreme, but its true situation was involved in mystery. 
To the traffic in slaves was attributed much of its wretchedness. 
Time, however, showed that the iron despotism of its kings, 
the absoluteness of its domestic slavery, the objects of its idol- 
atrous worship, the modes of performing its religious rites, its cruel 
superstitions, its degrading customs, its human sacrifices, its can- 
nibalism, must have dated their origin far back beyond the com- 
mencement of the slave trade. This traffic, it became evident, had 
not originated the greatest evils under which Africa suffered, but 
was itself one of the natural fruits of the social and moral degra- 
dation previously existing. 

At length the darkness of that barbarism was to be penetrated 
by the light of civilization, and the attempt made to lift the Af- 
rican up to the level of the Caucasian. This effort was not a 
voluntary one, springing spontaneously from the mind of the 
philanthropist, and undertaken out of pure sympathy for Africa. 
The people were forced into action, for its accomplishment, in 
such a manner as God only can lead men into important meas- 
ures for human progress. It was inaugurated by the adoption 
of such schemes, and conducted in such a way, as seemed best 
adapted to determine the question, whether the black man can be 
2 (17) 



18 PULPIT POLITICS. 

made the equal of the -white. It was begun, too, at the very 
moment Avhen the white man, on the American continent, was 
commencing his attempt at solving the mighty problem of man's 
capability of self-government. It was a most important moment, 
this, when the first steps were taken towards the redemption of 
Africa. * None, for a moment, supposed that the task could be 
performed in a thousand years to come. The work was an un- 
tried one — such a work as had never before been attempted upon 
earth. Nations had conquered nations — had destroyed their 
captives or enslaved them — but never had the strong devoted 
themselves to the elevation of the weak. Two thousand years 
had the whites struggled, unaided, to gain the boon of constitu- 
tional freedom ; and, even then, but a single nation had suc- 
ceeded. Could the blacks do more — could they advance, at a 
single stride, from barbarism to civilization ! We shall see. 

On the 22d May, 1772, Lord Mansfield decided the celebrated 
Somersett case, and pronounced it unlawful to hold a slave in 
Great Britain, f Previously to this date many slaves had been 
introduced into English families, and, on running away, had been 
delivered up to their masters, by order of the court of King's 
Bench, under Lord Mansfield ; but now the poor African, no 
longer hunted as a beast of prey in the streets of London, slept 
under his roof, miserable as it might be, in perfect security. X 

To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. 
By the decision referred to, about 400 negroes were thrown upon 

*\Ve refer, of course, to the first efforts which had been productive of favorable 
results. Earlier attempts had been made to introduce the Gospel into Africa, 
but without success. Un this point, Mr. Tracy, in his History of Colonization 
and Missions, says: 

" Catholic missionaries labored for two hundred and forty-one years, but 
every vestige of their influence has been gone for many generations. The 
Moravians, beginning in 1730, toiled for thirty-four years, making five at- 
tempts, at a cost of eleven lives, and effected nothing. An English attempt, at 
Bulama Island, in 1792, partly missionary in its character, was abandoned in 
two years, with a loss of one hundred lives. A mission sent to the Foulahs, 
from England, in 1795, returned without commencing its labors. The London, 
Edinburgh and Glasgow Society, commenced three stations in 1797, which were 
estinct in three years, and five of the six missionaries dead." 

t See subsequent notices of the opinions of Lords Mansfield and Stowell. 

X Clarkson's History of the Slave Trade. 



COLONIZATION AT SIERRA LEONE. 19 

their own resources. Without any one to care for them, they 
soon found themselves to be but mere outcasts, with none to pro- 
tect or employ them. In despair, they flocked to Mr. Sharp, as 
their patron ; but, considering their numbers, and his limited 
means, it was impossible for him to afford them adequate relief. 
To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from the army and 
navy, were afterwards added, who, by their improvidence, were 
reduced to extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr. Sharp 
determined to colonize them in Africa; but, possessing only a 
limited fortune, it was impossible for him to effect this object 
without aid from others. That aid could not be obtained ; and 
fifteen years passed away before any thing could be accomplished. 
By this time, the blacks — indigent, unemployed, despised, for- 
lorn, vicious — had become such nuisances as to make it neces- 
sary they should be sent somewhere, and no longer suffered to 
infest the streets of London. * At length the Government came 
to the aid of Mr. Sharp, and supplied the means of their trans- 
portation and support, f 

In April, 1787, these African freemen, to the number of 400, 
were put on shipboard for Africa ; and bidding farewell to the 
soil of Britain, where freedom had wrought no good for them, 
were landed, in the following month, at Sierra Leone. The next 
year a few new emigrants arrived, and, after much difficulty and 
suffering and a great reduction of their numbers, the colony was 
considered as established. 

In March, 1792, a reinforcement of 1,131 colored persons, 
arrived at Sierra Leone. These men were fugitive slaves, who 
had joined the English during the American Revolutionary war, 
and had been promised lands in Nova Scotia; but the Govern- 
ment having failed to meet its pledge, in consequence of the op- 
position of the whites, and the climate proving unfavorable, they 
sought a refuge in Africa, to which they were removed under the 
care of Mr. Clarkson. 

The control of the colony soon passed from the hands of Mr. 
Sharp, to those of a Company. When this change occurred, the 
liberal system of government adopted by Mr. Sharp, which ad- 

* Wadstrom, p. 220. 

t Memoirs of Granville Sharp. 



20 PULPIT POLITIUb. 

mitted colored men to a share in its administration, was super- 
seded by more rigid laws, excluding them from voting and from 
office. This led the American blacks to rebel, and they were 
only subjected to the control of the Governor, after a hard fought 
battle, in which he was aided by some natives, and by 550 free 
negroes from Jamaica, who landed on the day of the engage- 
ment. Three of the rebel leaders were captured and afterwards 
executed — thus extinguishing this little spark of democracy in 
the colony. The 550 maroons (mulattoes) who thus arrived so 
opportunely to the aid of the Governor, were a set of turbulent 
freemen, of the mountains of Jamaica, who had first been shipped 
to Nova Scotia, and thence to Sierra Leone. 

On the first of January, 1808, the Government relieved the 
Company from its difficulties, by assuming the sovereignty of 
Sierra Leone. In this year the slave trade was prohibited, and 
the colony became necessary to the crown in carrying out its 
purposes towards Africa. 

With this introductory historical sketch of the foundation of 
Sierra Leone, the way is prepared to enter upon the missionary 
history of the colony, and to determine how far the opinions of 
British Christians, on the subject of slavery, have been influenced 
by that important event — an event purely providential, and not 
of man's devising. 

Missions for the benefit of this colony had been first attempted 
in 1792, again in 1795, and again in l797 ; but all these efi'orts 
had failed. In 1804, the Church Missionary Society sent out its 
missionaries, with orders to seek for stations among the natives 
outside of the territory of the colony ; because of the opposition 
within it, which had originated from the efi'orts to coerce the col- 
onists into subjection to the authorities ; and because of the prev- 
alence of the slave trade, at that time a legal traffic for British 
subjects within its limits, as well as to all other nations through- 
out the whole of Africa. But the efi'orts of these missionaries 
also failed, and they had to await further developments. 

In 1808, when the slave trade was abolished by Great Britain, 
this same mission commenced ten stations as directed, but were 
unable to sustain them. The natives, not under the control of 
the colony, but interested in the slave trade, burned the mission 



EMANCIPATION AND MISSIONS. 21 

houses and churches, destroyed the growing crops of the mission- 
aries, threatened their lives, and otherwise persecuted them. 

When England abandoned the traffic in slaves, it so happened 
that she thereby only surrendered its monopoly into the hands 
of France, Portugal, and Spain, who had tropical territory which 
demanded an increase of labor. Hence, there was no diminution 
of its extent, or abatement of its horrors, but a vast increase of 
both : and, although the missions from 1792 to 1808 had failed, 
both in and out of the colony, yet the continuance of the traffic, 
beyond its limits, after 1808, drove the missionaries within its 
jurisdiction, in the hopes of better protection. But these out- 
stations were not wholly abandoned until after a long struggle to 
sustain them — the last one having been maintained until 1818. 

In 1811, the English Wesleyans sent out a missionary to the 
Nova Scotia blacks, in Sierra Leone ; who was successful in es- 
tablishing a mission among them on a permanent basis. The 
Church Missionary Society also continued its labors with success, 
directing its efforts, mainly, to the improvement of the natives. 
These natives have been of two classes : first, those living in the 
colony and its vicinity ; and, second, those recaptured from slave 
ships, after the system of an armed repression of the slave trade 
had been adopted. But no missions could succeed, until after 
the suppression of that traffic had been effected in Sierra Leone, 
and British authority began to exert a controlling influence upon 
the coast. This led to the conviction, that Africa could not be 
evangelized while the slave trade prevailed. The present naval 
force, on that coast, had no existence then, nor until many years 
after the traffic in slaves was prohibited ; while, at the same time, 
the demand for slaves was so great as to give the utmost activi- 
ty to the trade. This is clearly indicated by the fact, that while 
the entire exports of slaves from Africa, from 1798 to 1810, num- 
bered 85,000 annually, they had increased, in 1815, to 106,000 
annually ; or more than 20,000 annually over the former exports. ■'^ 

These results led British Christians to the conclusion, that the 
slave trade could not be suppressed and Africa christianized, 
except by the destruction of the markets for slaves. Destroy the 
demand, argued the English people, and the supply will cease. 

* See Parliamentary Reports. 



22 PULPIT POLITICS. 

But this demand could only be destroyed by universal emanci- 
pation ; and, therefore, it was urged, that all the enslaved must 
be set free — that West India slavery must be abolished. 

To reconcile the nation, generally, to the proposed measure of 
abolition in the colonies, arguments were offered on the econo- 
mical aspects of the question. The theory was broached, that 
free labor was doubly profitable over slave labor — that one free- 
man working under the stimulus of wages, was worth two slaves 
toiling beneath the lash. As a result of the prohibition of the 
slave trade, in cutting off the ordinary supplies of labor, the 
exports from the islands had fallen off thirty-three per cent. 
Freedom, it was nevertheless urged, would fully restore their 
prosperity ; and, thus, emancipation would not only be the dis- 
charge of a moral duty, but it would also be a profitable meas- 
ure. In this way, the war against slavery became a popular 
movement in Great Britain, and was zealously prosecuted, until, 
in 1833, the emancipation act was carried in Parliament. 

The results of emancipation upon the prospei'ity of the Islands, 
as well as upon the slave trade and emancipation at large, have 
been very different from Avhat was anticipated by the people of 
England. These points will receive attention as we progress. It 
need only be remarked here, in addition to what has been al- 
ready stated, that the exports of slaves from Africa, according 
to Parliamentary Reports, were increased immediately after West 
India Emancipation, or from 1835 to 1839, to 135,800 annually ; 
being 50,800 more than were exported yearly, when the crusade 
against the slave trade was commenced by Mr. Wilberforce. 

The theory that the evangelization of Africa could not be ef- 
fected during the existence of the slave trade, had very many 
facts to sustain it, and it became the universal creed of Chris- 
tendom. It lay at the foundation of the organization of the 
American Colonization Society ; and, twenty-five years later, in 
connection with commercial objects, it put in motion the costly, 
yet fatal Niger expedition. From this belief, there was but a 
step to the conviction that the African race, at large, could not 
be christianized as long as they remained in bondage. 

This theory, too, had then much to give it support, as is ap- 
parent from the results of missionary efforts in the West Indies. 



MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 2b 

Look at the facts recorded in the general history of missions ; 
and also at the testimony of individuals familiar with the condi- 
tion of the Islands. The Rev. J. M. Phillippo, for twenty years 
a missionary in Jamaica, and who has written its history, says: 

*' Upwards of 120 years after Jamaica had become an appendage of 
the British crown, scarcely an effort had been made to instruct the 
slaves in the great doctrines and duties of Christianity ; and although, 
in 1G96, at the instance of the mother country, an act was passed by 
the local legislature, directing that all slave owners should instruct 
their negroes, and have them baptized ' when fit for it,' it is evident, 
from the very terras in which the act was expressed, that it was designed 
to be, as it afterwards proved, a dead letter — a mere political manoeu- 
vre, intended to prevent the parent state from interfering in the man- 
agement of the slaves." 

From this time to 1770, a period of 74 years, the question of 
slave instruction in Jamaica received no attention. When, in 
1770, Parliament put certain questions to Mr. Weddeburn, as to 
the actual state of religious instruction of slaves in the island, 
he replied : " There are a few properties on which there are Mo- 
ravian parsons ; but, in general, there is no religious instruction." 
The same testimony was borne at the same time by Mr. Fuller, 
agent of Jamaica, and two others, Avho, when asked " what re- 
ligious instructions are there for the negro slaves," answered, 
" we know of none such in Jamaica," 

The Rev. Dr. Coke, who was sent out on a missionary explo- 
ration, in 1787, says : 

" When I first landed in Jamaica, the form of Godliness was hardly 
visible ; and its power, except in some few solitary instances, was totally 
unknown. Iniquity prevailed in all its forms. Both whites and blacks, 
to the number of between 300,000 and 400,000, were evidently living 
without hope and without God in the world. The language of the 
Apostle seems strikingly descriptive of their entire depravity : ' There 
is none righteous, no, not one ; there is none that understandcth, there 
is none that seeketh after God. Their throats are an open sepulchre ; 
with their tongue they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under 
their lips ; their feet are swift to shed blood, and the way of peace 
they have not known." 



24 PULPIT POLITICS. 

In 1796, Mr. Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, in 
his place in the House of Commons, when speaking of sending 
missionaries to a certain point in Jamaica, said : 

" I speak from my own knowledge when I say, that they are canni- 
bals, and that instead of listening to a missionary, they would certainly 
eat him." 

The introduction of the Gospel into Jamaica, as well as into 
the other West India Islands, met with the most rancorous op- 
position from the planters, who, with some honorable exceptions, 
viewed the religious instruction of the slaves as " incompatible 
with the existence of slavery." The work of missions therefore, 
though begun in Jamaica, by the Baptists in 1814, and by the 
Methodists in 1789 and again in 1815, made but little progress, 
being resolutely opposed until about 1820. In 1824, the Mora- 
vians, who had commenced so far back as 1754, had four stations 
and four missionaries ; the Wesleyans eight stations and eight 
missionaries ; and the Baptists five stations and five missionaries. 

Though overawed by the mother country, the planters still 
manifested bitter hostility to the religious instruction of the 
slaves. In 1824, they renewed their persecutions of the mission- 
aries, and in 1832, on a partial insurrection of the blacks — be- 
ginning in December, 1831 — their wrath overfloAving all bounds, 
they commenced an indiscriminate destruction of the mission prop- 
erty. In this frightful crusade against the Gospel, they destroyed 
no less than 14 chapels, with private houses and other property, 
belonging to the Baptists, amounting in value to $115,250 ; and 
6 chapels belonging to the Methodists, and property worth $30- 
000. Every species of cruelty and insult Avas inflicted upon the 
missionaries. 

The emancipation act of the following year, 1833, going into 
effect August 1, 1834, by which the slaves became apprentices 
and afterwards, in 1838, were set entirely free, forever put it out 
of the power of the planters to repeat such acts of violence and 
injustice. The missions have since been continued among the 
colored people of the British West Indies, with varying results, 
as we shall hereafter see. 

To gain a true idea of the varied conditions of the population 



MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 25 

of the several British West India Islands, a more definite state- 
ment must be made. The principal facts are taken from New- 
comb's Encyclopedia of Missions, second revised edition, New 
York, 1858. * 

Antigua, settled in 1632, had a total population, in 184G, of 
33,726, of whom 23,350 were blacks. The Gospel was intro- 
duced into this island in 1760, by one of its leading public men, 
Mr. Gilbert, who had become a convert to Christianity, under the 
preaching of Mr. Wesley, during a visit to England. Nearly 200 
persons were united in Christian fellowship under his superinten- 
dence ; but while thus zealously employed, for the good of his 
own slaves and that of others, he was removed by death, and the 
flock left as sheep without a shepherd. In the prosecution of his 
labors, he was encountered by bitter hostility. His loss to these 
converts was supplied by a pious shipwright, who for about eight 
years kept them together, until Dr. Coke, in 1786, supplied a 
permanent missionary to the island. 

This mission appears to have enjoyed, for many years, an al- 
most uninterrupted prosperity, until 1826, when all the mission- 
aries, with part of their families, 13 in all, perished at sea, in re- 
turning from a district meeting held in St. Christophers. 

St. Vincents, settled in 1763, had, in 1846, a population of 
26,533, of whom 18,114 were blacks. The first missionary was 
introduced into St. Vincents in 1787, by Dr. Coke. At first the 
mission was successful, and the opposition, for several years, was 
confined to some lawless individuals; but at length the arm of 
authority was turned against the mission, and the Colonial As- 
sembly passed certain laws calculated to root out the Wesleyans 
from the island. The law was extremely severe, including ban- 
ishment and death, under certain circumstances. The majority 
of the people, however, were opposed to the law, and it remained 
in force but a short time — the king having vetoed it, as contrary 
to the principles of toleration. While it was in force, however, 
the missionary was arrested, imprisoned, and banished. Before 
the passage of this law, the converts numbered about 1,000 ; but, 

* The dates of the settlements of the islands, severally, with the number of the 
population, are taken from the Missionary Guide Book, 1846, London, -which 
gives, as its authority, Murray's Encyclopedia of Geography. — ■ Newconib. 



26 PULPIT POLITICS. 

soon afterward, were reduced one-half by the dispersions which 
followed. In 1794, two missionaries were sent out to renew the 
work ; and many returning from their wanderings, the congrega- 
tion began to increase. But the spirit of hostility was rather 
smothered than subdued. In March, 1797, a mob, headed by a 
magistrate, attacked the Methodist chapel, threw down the rail- 
ings, broke the lamps, pulled down the communion rails, and tore 
the Bible in pieces. About a year after, an attempt was made 
upon the lives of the missionaries. Their house was broken open 
in the night, and some ruffians, armed with cutlasses, entered the 
sleeping apartments, turned up the bed and searched for them in 
every corner. Happily, the missionaries, anticipating the attack, 
had taken refuge for the night at the dwelling of a friend. 

Barbados, settled in 1624, had a population in 1846, of 120,- 
000, of whom 66,000 were blacks. The mission work, among the 
slaves, was commenced in 1788, but the missionary soon met with 
violent opposition, on the ground that he was disseminating among 
the negroes, notions incompatible with their condition as slaves. 
Repeated attempts were made by the mob to interrupt the meet- 
ings for worship, in which they conducted themselves in the most 
violent and outrageous manner. An appeal to the magistrate for 
redress proving fruitless, the dwelling of the missionary was at- 
tacked with stones, and his wife struck with violence. His suc- 
cessor, in 1791, found the prejudices so far dispelled, that he had 
access to more estates than he could visit. Persecution had now 
nearly ceased, but it had given place to a settled contempt for 
divine things. But, in October, 1823, intelligence was received 
that an insurrection had broken out among the slaves of Jamai- 
ca, and the Methodist missionaries were accused of being acces- 
sory to it, by teaching sedition under pretence of giving instruc- 
tion. The intelligence raised a storm of wrath against the mis- 
sion here, and every indignity was heaped on the missionary. A 
mob assembled and tore down the chapel, and the life of the mis- 
sionary being in danger, he left the island for St. Vincents. These 
outrages led to a censure upon the inhabitants by the British 
House of Commons ; and, to relieve themselves of the odium, 94 
of the principal men signed a declaration, expressing their re- 
gret at the occurrence, and their approbation of the sentiments 



MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 27 

of the House. But, in 1826, when another missionary arrived, 
placards were posted up, calling upon the mob to tar and feather 
him, and the president refused him a license to preach. Yet, af- 
terward, he proceeded in his work without molestation, a new 
chapel was erected, the prejudice against the Methodists subsided, 
and a prosperous mission was established. 

Virgin Islands, settled in 1660, had 7,731 inhabitants in 1846, 
of whom 4,318 were blacks. The mission work was begun, in 
this group of islands, in 1789. A large society was soon col- 
lected at Tortola, and, other missionaries arriving, the work Avas 
extended to Spanish Town, and other islets in the vicinity. But, 
in December, 1805, a most brutal outrage was committed, by a 
mob, on one of the missionaries at Tortola, by which he came 
near losing his life. This was done in revenge for an alleged 
publication in England, respecting the morals of the people of the 
island. Before the commencement of this mission, every species 
of wickedness prevailed among the negroes; but since the Gos- 
pel entered, their superstitious practices have been abandoned. 
No early statistics of membership are given, but, in 1853, the 
church in Tortola, is said to have had 1,604 members. 

Bermudas, settled in 1612, had a population, in 1846, of 8,- 
720, of whom 3,314 were blacks. These are a numerous cluster 
of small islands, included in the West Indies, and belonging to 
the British. A mission was commenced on Somer's Island, in 
1779, which had to encounter the prejudices of the whites and 
the heathenish superstitions of the blacks: the latter being found 
under the slavish dominion of witchcraft, as it prevails in Africa ; 
but it was not long before the Gospel began to exert its influence. 
Yet this was no sooner manifested, than the hostility of the 
whites was aroused. Laws were passed similar to those in Ja- 
maica ; and the missionary was imprisoned six months in the com- 
mon jail, by which his health was so impaired that he was re- 
called, and the island left destitute of the Gospel for six years. 
In 1808, another missionary visited the island, but found the so- 
ciety previously gathered by the first missionary dispersed. Ob- 
taining permission from the governor, he commenced his labors, 
but without any great success. In 1853, the Church members 
numbered 445 



ZO PULPIT POLITICS. 

Bahamas, settled in 1783, had a population, in 1846, of 18,718, 
of whom 7,734 were blacks. These islands are the most western 
of the West Indies, extending along the coast of Florida, tOAvard 
Cuba. The first mission, in these islands, was commenced in 
1800 ; and though a law bad been previously enacted, prohibiting 
the instruction of slaves, the missionary, having obtained permis- 
sion to preach, soon succeeded in raising a small society. Other 
missionaries arriving, the work was successfully extended to sev- 
eral of the islands, where a great reformation followed their 
labors. But, in 181G, the legislature passed an act prohibiting, 
under severe penalties, meetings for divine worship earlier than 
sun-rise and later than sun-set, thus depriving the slaves of the 
privilege of attending. After a few years, however, the legisla- 
ture retraced its steps, and repealed the restrictions which had 
been laid upon the poor negroes. In 1853, the Methodist mission, 
in the Bahamas, had 2,800 members. 

Besides the missions already noticed, the Methodists established 
many others, the details of which are not given in the work from 
which we quote. 

As the final result of the whole labors of the Methodists, in 
the West Indies, including Ilayti, Guiana, and some of the Dutch 
and Danish Islands, their church members, in 1853, numbered 
48,589. This included the converts among the coolies, for whom 
missionaries have been appointed. 

In noticing the results of the missionary efi'orts in Jamaica, 
the Baptist missions were referred to as having suff'ered along 
with the Methodists. The Baptists entered that field in 1814., 
Encouraged by early indications of success, the Society pressed 
forward in its work, increasing the number of its laborers and 
forming ncAV stations, till, at the annual meeting of the missiona- 
ries at Falmouth, in April, 1831, the number of members reported 
was 10,838. The year following, the terrible mob violence, 
already noticed, broke up all their missions and destroyed their 
property. But they Avere again soon reorganized, and the 
churches continued to prosper to such a degree, that they were 
never in a better condition than when the emancipation act was 
carried into full efi"ect in 1838. In 1841, the number of members 
had increased to 27,706 ; and, in Jamaica, in 1842, the ministers 



MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 29 

unanimously resolved, as an appropriate commemoration at once 
of the day of freedom and the jubilee of the mission, to detach 
themselves from the funds of the parent society, after the first of 
August ensuing. This proved to be an ill-advised measure, and 
injurious to the cause of missions. 

The Baptists extended their missions to some of the other 
islands, particularly after the passage of the emancipation act; 
but, as our aim in this part of our investigations is, chiefly, to 
trace the progress of the Gospel under slavery, we shall not add 
further details here, but leave them to be noticed hereafter. The 
population of Jamaica, in 1846, was 380,000 of whom 255,290 
were blacks, the remainder being mulattoes and whites. 

The Island of St. Thomas, settled in 16—, had, in 1846, a 
population of 5,080, of whom 4,500 were blacks. In 1732, the 
Moravians commenced their mission in this island ; and in 1736, 
three persons were baptized. In 1738, a negro named Mingo 
was baptized, and became a zealous assistant. Through his 
preaching an awakening took place over the whole island. But 
the planters opposed the work, and persecuted and imprisoned 
the missionaries. Count Zinzendorf, however, who unexpected- 
ly arrived in the island, procured their liberation. The mis- 
sions were extended to the other Danish islands, St. Croix and 
St. Jan; and the work progressed, until, in 1832, a centennary 
jubilee was held, and the important and encouraging fact was 
reported, that during that period, 37,000 souls had been baptized 
in these islands. All this work was accomplished under slavery, 
as emancipation, in the Danish islands, was not effected until 1848. 

The Island of St. Jan, in 1846, had a population of 2,430, of 
whom 2,250 were blacks ; and St. Croix 31,387, of whom 29,164 
were blacks. 

There are, at the present time, in the three Danish islands, 
St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. Jan, belonging to the Moravians, 
8 stations, 35 laborers, and 9,398 converts, of wdiom 2,892 are 
communicants. 

In Jamaica, the Moravians, in 1804, fifty years from the found- 
ing of the mission, were able to report but 938 negroes as having 
been baptized. In 1831 and '32, as before stated, they greatly 
Buffered from mob violence. In 1851, in a revicAV of the Jamaica 



30 PULPIT POLITICS. 

mission, the Moravian CJiurch 3Iiscellany represents it as com- 
prising 13 stations, and the negroes, in connection with the 
churches, as numbering 13,388, young and ohl. 

In Antigua, a mission was commenced by the Moravians in 
1756, which had to endure much persecution from the planters ; 
yet, in 1788, they numbered more than 6,000 converts. In 1823, 
there had been received into the Church, within the preceding 
fifty years, 16,099 converts, young and okl. In 1826, the num- 
ber of slaves receiving instruction was 14,823 ; and, at the pres- 
ent time, the number of members reported is 8,000, there having 
been some diminution attributed to the encroachments of other 
denominations. The Moravians also established missions in St. 
Kitts, Barbados, and Dutch Guiana, with varying success. 

The Church Missionary Society ; the Society for the propaga- 
tion of the Gospel; the London Missionary Society; and the 
United Scotch Presbyterian Church, have all established missions 
in the West Indies — a portion of them previous to emancipation, 
but, mainly, since that epoch. The statistics of their operations, 
previous to 1833, are not accessible. 

In closing the history of the Methodist missions in Jamaica, up to 
the period of emancipation, the writer from whom we quote, says : * 

" The emancipation of the negroes was quickly followed by very 
important changes, The Sabbath was observed with hallowed strict- 
ness. Nothing was to be seen on that day but decently dressed people 
going to and from their places of worship ; congregations were in- 
creased and multiplied ; old chapels were enlarged, and new ones 
erected. Education was also greatly extended. A great change took 
place also in the public opinion of Jamaica, as to the Methodist mis- 
sionaries. Formerly no names were too vile, no treatment too bad for 
them ; even their chapels were shut up or razed to the ground as pub- 
lic nuisances. Yet within five years after the late insurrection, the 
House of Assembly of Jamaica made a grant of £500 to aid in the 
erection of a Methodist chapel in Kingston; and, during the discus- 
sion of the subject, the highest culogiums were pronounced on the use- 
fulness of the Wesleyan missionaries. The Common Council of King- 
ston, and several of the parochial vestries, followed the example of 
the Assembly, and made grants for similar purposes." 

* Encyclopaedia of Missions. 



MISSIONS IN TEE WEST INDIES. 31 

The Bishop of Barbados, too, thus described the results : 

" First. Wives and husbands hitherto living on different estates be- 
gan to live together. 

" Second. The number of marriages greatly increased. One of his 
clergy had married ten couple a week, since the first of August. 

" Third. The schools greatly increased ; a hundred were added in 
one district. 

" Fourth. The planters complain that their whole weeding gang 
(children), instead of going to work, go to school. 

" Fifth. All the young women cease to work in the field, and are 
learning female employment. 

'• Sixth. Friendly societies for mutual relief have increased. 

" Seventh. The work of the clergymen is doubled. One of the 
chapels which held three hundred is being enlarged, so as to contain 
nine hundred, and still will not be large enough." 

Under tliese encouragements, the missionaries pressed onward 
in their work, so that in six years after full emancipation, 1844, 
they had a membership, in Jamaica, numbering 26,585. But 1853 
shows a falling off in the members to 19,478. This astonishing 
result is thus accounted for, in the work from which we continue 
to quote : * 

" Yet, though at the first the prospects seemed to brighten, after a 
few years they grew worse. Many of the colored people purchased 
small lots of land, sometimes in the mountains, built cottages, and cul- 
tivated the ground for a living. Many left their old homes and sought 
employment elsewhere, often at a distance from the house of God. 
Many grew worldly-minded, made money the great object of their pur- 
suit, and sought for happiness in earthly things. Some even returned 
to their vile heathenish practices, which, it was hoped, they had utter- 
ly forgotten." 

In justice to our common humanity, it must be stated that — 

" In some of the colonies, there were not only no persecuting laws, 
but the missionaries were greatly encouraged, both by the local gov- 
ernment, and by the owners of slaves. Even in those islands where they 
met with persecution, they had many friends among the planters and 
others of the white inhabitants. Some built chapels on their estates, 



* Encyclopaedia of Missions. 



82 PULPIT POLITICS. 

and others subscribed handsomely to their erection in the neighbor- 
hood." * 

It will now be apparent, that so far as the influence upon the 
blacks was concerned, the missionary success in Jamaica, while 
the work could be prosecuted peacefully, Avas fully equal to that 
of any other missions in any part of the heathen world. The 
history of these missions proves, that slaves are not rendered in- 
accessible to the Gospel, merely because of their subjection to 
slavery ; but that, wherever the master favors the work, encour- 
aging success is to be expected. When closely analyzed, the mo- 
tives prompting British Christians to urge emancipation so ve- 
hemently, appear to have originated in the belief, not that the 
blacks were incapable of christianization under slavery, but that, 
while slavery prevailed, the masters would continue to interrupt 
the mission work, and thus render the conversion of the slaves 
impracticable. 

It may be very easy, at this day, to point out defects in the 
measures of British Christians, for giving the Gospel to the West 
India slaves ; but it must be remembered, that they were cngag- 
ino- in a work in which the lights of experience afforded no aid. 
Where the moral gloom appeared the darkest, there they first at- 
tempted to let in the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Had 
the masters been first brought under the influence of the Gospel, 
like the christian master of Antigua, Mr. Gilbert, they would 
have been most efficient auxiliaries in the work of instruction 
among the negroes. All masters could not have become teachers, 
but all would have given the missionaries free access to their 
slaves. Under this state of things, British Christians would not 
have felt that emancipation was indispensable to the conversion 
of the blacks ; and the churches, effecting their object under ex- 
isting laws, would not have demanded the abolition of slavery. 
But the opposite course having been pursued — the throne having 
been invoked to constrain the masters, and force them to allow 
the instruction of their slaves — a position of antagonism was 
produced between the churches and the planters, producing re- 

* Encyclopaedia of Missions, p. 770. 



MISSIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 33 

suits, as we shall see, that have been ruinous to all the best in- 
terests of both whites and blacks. 

Another subject needs examination here, as it is connected with 
the British theory that slavery is unfavorable to an increase of 
population. 

Twenty-six years after England conquered the island of Ja- 
maica, 1696, up to which time the importation of slaves still con- 
tinued, the whites numbered 15,198, and the slaves 9,500. At 
the end of an additional forty-six years, 1742, during nearly the 
whole of which period the monopoly of the slave trade was held 
by England, the whites numbered 14,000, and the slaves 100,000. 
The annual importation of slaves into Jamaica, now reached 16,- 
000, so that at the end of another twenty-eight years, 1770, they 
numbered 200,000, while the whites had scarcely increased 2,000. 
These numbers show, that from 1742 to 1770, the number of 
slaves who sunk under the lash of the Jamaica task-master, must 
have been 248,000, or almost 9,000 annually. The whole num- 
ber of slaves imported into this island by the English, up to 1808, 
when the slave trade was forbidden, was 850,000, to which must 
be added the 40,000 previously imported by the Spaniards, mak- 
ing the total number of Africans transported to Jamaica, amount 
to 890,000. And yet the startling truth must be told, that when 
the census was taken, in 1835, under the emancipntion act, so as 
to determine the distribution of compensation to the masters, in- 
stead of there having been any increase on the numbers imported, 
they amounted to only 311,692. 

But Jamaica was not alone in this wholesale destruction of hu- 
man life. Taking the whole of the British West India Colonies, 
and the most astonishing results are presented. The total im- 
portation of slaves into these islands — including Jamaica — up 
to 1808, was 1,700,000, while the number left for emancipation, 
including their descendants, was but 660,000.* 

Such are the leading facts upon which British philanthropists 
based their theories upon slavery, in its effects upt)n population 
and upon African evangelization. We shall again have occasion 
to refer to these theories. 



See Compend of U. S. Census, 1850, — also "Ethiopia. 

3 



34 PULPIT POLITICS. 

But whence originated the white men, who so resolutely op- 
posed the introduction of the Gospel into the West Indies, and 
impiously attempted to shut out the light of heaven from the 
darkened souls of its slaves ? In answer to this question, we shall 
draw, briefly, upon the history of Jamaica, before referred to, by 
Rev, Mr. Phillippo, as a type of the whole : 

" The Island of Jamaica, discovered in 1492, was settled by a col- 
ony of Spaniards in 1509, who, by their oppressions and savage cruel- 
ties, in less than fifty years wholly exterminated the native Indian 
population, originally numbering from 80,000 to 100,000. African 
slaves seem to have been introduced at an early day as substitutes for 
the natives ; and up to 1655, when the English, then at war with Spain, 
took possession of the island, 40,000 slaves had been imported by the 
Spaniards, only 1,500 of whom were then surviving. Jamaica, by this 
change of masters, was not much improved in its social and moral con- 
dition, which, under the 146 years of Spanish rule, had been deplora- 
ble. It now became the rendezvous of buccaneers and piratical cru- 
saders, a desperate band of men from all the maritime powers of Europe, 
who continued to perpetrate almost every degree of wickedness, both on 
sea and land, until 1760, when peace was made with Spain, and a more 
vigorous administration of law attempted." 

The English people deduced four theories from the facts de- 
tailed : 

1. That the Slave Trade is incompatible with African evan- 
gelization. 

2. That Slavery, wherever it prevails, is adverse to an increase 
of population. 

3. That Slavery presents an insuperable barrier to the evan- 
gelization of the Africans subjected to its control. 

4. That Free Labor is more profitable than slave labor — the 
labor of one freeman, under the stimulus of wages, being more 
productive than that of two slaves, toiling under the dread of the 
lash. 

These propositions we propose to examine, in detail, in -the 
following pages, so as to judge of their applicability to American 
Slavery. 



ERRORS IN BRITISH THEORIES, 35 



CHAPTER II. 

EXAMINATION OF THE ERRORS IN THE BRITISH THEORIES, AS AP- 
PLIED TO AMERICAN SLAVERY BEFORE WEST INDIA EMANCIPA- 
TION. 

In turning from the consideration of the results of British Col- 
onial Slavery, to inquire into the results of American Slavery, * 
some very striking facts are presented, which show a well-marked 
diversity in the two systems. The theories entertained by the 
English, were of slow growth, and not fully adopted until near 
the period of West India Emancipation. To form a correct judg- 
ment in relation to American slavery, and to fairly contrast it 
with the British system, a period must be embraced of equal ex- 
tent to that required to form the English theories. They were 
four in number, as stated in the close of the preceding chapter ; 
and, with a view to the more distinct understanding of the whole 
of the questions to be examined, we may consider them in sep- 
arate sections : 

Section I. — That the Slave Trade is incompatible with 
African Evangelization. 

This theory was fully sustained by the effects of the slave trade 
upon Africa itself. Looking at the question from that point of 
view alone, it was a logical deduction from the facts then revealed 
in the history of that traffic. It presented no redeeming trait in 
its character, and not a solitary circumstance connected with its 
prosecution, that tended, in the slightest degree, to work the least 

* The term " American Slavery," unless otherwise stated, applies to that of 
the United States. 



36 PULPIT POLITICS. 

improvement in the moral condition of its subjects. On land, it 
greatly aggravated the warlike disposition of the natives, and 
caused the soil of Africa to whiten with human bones. In the 
holds of the slave ships, despair and death were ever present, and 
hope and joy never entered. 

But when a broader view of the subject is taken, the hand of 
God is perceivable in this wonderful movement. Africa was sunk 
in the deepest moral darkness, and had wholly forgotten the only 
Creator. Among her gods were gods of blood, and human be- 
ings the offerings sacrificed upon their altars. Wars were waged 
to multiply captives, that the number of sacrifices might be en- 
larged, and the anger of the deities more fully appeased or their 
favor more certainly secured. The slave trader presented him- 
self in the midst of the worshipers, and offered a price for the 
victims. Superstition, overpowered by cupidity, accepting gold 
instead of blood, dropped the sacrificial knife, and the devoted 
one gladly went into slavery to escape the impending horrible 
death. 

The Portuguese took the lead among European nations in the 
traffic in slaves. The first experiment was made in 1442. It 
proved successful, and many private adventurers soon afterward 
embarked in the trade. In 1481, the king of Portugal, taking 
the title of Lord of Guinea, erected many forts on the African 
coast for the protection of the traffic. As early as 1503, a few 
negro slaves had been sent into St. Domingo ; and, in 1511, Fer- 
dinand had permitted them to be imported in great numbers. In 
1518, some Genoese merchants, who had purchased the monopoly 
of the traffic in slaves from a favorite of Charles, commenced 
their transportation from Africa to America, * and brought the 
slave trade into that regular form which it long maintained. The 
French next obtained its monopoly, and kept it until it yielded 
them, according to Spanish official accounts, the sum of $204,- 
000,000. In 1713, the English, at the treaty of Utrecht, secured 
it for thirty years ; but Spain, in 1789, purchased the British 
right, for the remaining four years, by the payment of §500,000. 
The Dutch also participated in the traffic ; and, in 1620, intro- 

* "America " here refers to the West Indies, Mexico, South America, Brazil, &c. 



SLAVE TRADE AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION. 37 

duced the first slaves into the North American Colonies. In 1808, 
the traffic in slaves was prohibited by both the United States and 
Great Britain. 

In the earlier years of the slave trade, the Christian world was 
in no condition to send the Gospel to heathen lands. In 1516, 
says an eminent historian, "Religion Avas regarded only as an in- 
strument of government." * The Reformation, then only begin- 
ning, was long in making such progress as enabled Protestant 
Christians to engage in attempts to propagate their religion. They 
were more concerned for themselves, and for their children, than 
for the world at large ; as it was long doubtful whether they could 
maintain their ground in opposition to the power wielded against 
them. These Avere days of darkness and discouragement, but 
light and hope at length arose, and Christians began to put on 
their armor to battle for the extension of the kingdom of Christ. 
It was not until near the close of the 18th century, that Chris- 
tian missions were vigorously commenced, by some of the Brit- 
ish churches; and it was only in 1812, that the first American 
missionaries went into their fields in Asia. Six years earlier, the 
father of our Foreign Missionary scheme, Samuel J. Mills, re- 
corded this memorable sentence : " I think I can trust myself in 
the hands of God, and all that is dear to me ; but I long to have 
the time arrive, when the Gospel shall be preached to the poor 
Africans.'' A foAV years later brought around the organization 
of the African Colonization Society ; and Mr. Mills offered him- 
self, as an explorer, to find a highway for the colored man's re- 
turn to the land of his fathers. He accomplished his object, 1817, 
only to find his grave, on the return voyage, in the midst of the 
sea. 

The Christian Church had now become awakened to the impor- 
tance of extending the Gospel to the heathen throughout the 
world. Asia, with its pagan inhabitants and its false religions, 
was not unknown to the Christians of Europe and America. But 
Africa, with its barbarous hordes and murderous religious rites, 
was known only to the slave trader. Much had to be learned in 
relation to the mode of conducting Christian missions. In turn- 
ing over the historic page, it was found that — 

■■■■ D'Aubigue's History of the lleformation. 



38 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" Christianity, at first, went wherever a preparation had been made 
for its reception by the scattering and settlement of the Jewish race, 
and by the preexistent diffusion of the scriptures of the Old Testament, 
in the Greek language. Within these limits the Gospel seated itself, 
and there it held its position with more or less of continuity ; and be- 
yond the same limits it was, indeed, carried forth, and it won its tri- 
umphs ; but soon it lost its hold ; soon it retreated, and disappeared, 
leaving only some scattered and scarcely appreciable fragments on its 
spots, to denote the course it had taken." * 

If primitive Christianity could only sustain itself permanent- 
ly, in the midst of the civilized races of men, what security 
was there that, in the 18th and 19tli centuries, it could be ex- 
tended among the barbarous tribes of Africa, or of any other 
country ? Whether the founders of modern missions had doubts 
upon this subject or not, they wisely resolved, in sending out 
missionaries, that the school and the church should be insepara- 
ble. This was the more necessary, as, in every field occupied, 
whether in Asia, Africa, the Islands of the Sea, or among the 
Indians of North America, a strange language had to be studied 
before the missionary could deliver his message of salvation. 

But what was God doing, while man was thus tardily preparing 
for the evangelization of the world? British and American Chris- 
tians, enjoying religious freedom, and using a common language, 
were the most active and zealous in promoting the work of mis- 
sions. The slave trade had brought to their doors its thousands 
of thousands of Africans, who, under slavery, had been taught 
the English language, and were thus prepared to be instructed, 
directly, by the Christian teacher, who knew only his mother 
tongue. Many Christians, both English and American, beheld 
the hand of God in this movement, and accepted it as a Provi- 
dential dispensation, bringing within their reach a race of men 
otherwise inaccessible to the Gospel. Others, equally devoted to 
the cause of Christ, and anxious to extend his kingdom among 
men, consecrated themselves to the work in Africa itself. The 
barbarism of that benighted people was thus assailed at the two 
extremes. In the AYest Indies the teachers were few, and met 

* Isaac Tayloi"'3 "Wesley and Methodism, p. 293. 



SLAVE TRADE AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION. 39 

with opposition ; while, in the United States they were numerous, 
with none to interrupt their Labors, The results among the en- 
slaved Africans were most encouraging ; but the results in Afri- 
ca itself were not so successful. The efforts to plant the Gospel 
in that barbarous land led to the discovery of many facts of sig- 
nificant import, which convey lessons of instruction not to be 
overlooked. The climate of Africa proved itself so unfavorable 
to the health of white men, that only a few of the missionaries 
could labor long in that field. It was farther found, that the 
men and Avomen of mature years were incapable of compre- 
hending moral or religious truths ; and that, from the degraded 
condition of the population, it was impracticable to elevate the 
youth to the practice of a sound christian morality, except by 
carefully excluding them from the society of the natives. To do 
this, the teacher had to exert a despot's power, as the only means 
of restraining them from the ways of evil. He had to limit their 
liberties, as the onljft means by which he could preserve their 
morals. To let them run at will, rendered his teachings power- 
less for good, and ensured their moral destruction. * These re- 
sults were nothing new in the history of the workings of fallen 
human nature. Neglected children, in the midst of a vicious 
population, whatever their color, always run to ruin. No exemp- 
tion from the workings of this law prevails in Africa, any more 
than in other lands ; on the contrary, the fatal results, in that 
country, to the unrestrained youth, are only the more certain, 
because of the greater degradation of its population. 

These facts include lessons of grave importance. God rules 
among the children of men. He, alone, knows how to carry out 
measures sufficiently broad to secure the accomplishment of his 
purposes. He seemed to have decreed the redemption of Africa. 
To effect that work, it was necessary that Africans themselves 
should be educated for the execution of the task : for in its cli- 
mate the Avhite man sickens and dies, where the black man may 
dwell in safety. The slave trader carried away the sons of 
Africa, and placed them in contact with British and American 
civilization; where the restraints of slavery forced them to ac- 

* See tlie Report uf Bishop Scott, on his return from Liberia. 



40 PULPIT POLITICS. 

quire a knowledge of agriculture, mechanical arts, literature, 
science, and religion. The hand of God is as plainly discernible 
in this dispensation of his Providence, towards the African race, 
as it was in sending Jacob into Egypt with his sons, and permit- 
ting the enslavement of their posterity, that they might afterward 
rise above their former pastoral condition. Without the kncAvl- 
edge of the arts, sciences, and agriculture, acquired by them 
under Egyptian slavery, the people of Israel never could have 
become a great nation. 

Such is precisely the condition of the black race of men. 
Africa had slumbered on, for thousands of years, in sloth and 
pollution. The slave trade came as a means of mental excitation 
to her people. Carried away from a life of indolence to one of 
active industry, the intellect of the negro became awakened under 
the very chains which bound him. Visited by the disciples of 
Jesus, he found that human sympathy was a reality. Amazed at 
the discovery, he listened with joy to the story of redeeming love. 
Convinced, from past experience, that mankind are in open re- 
bellion against God, and that each individual heart is depraved 
and sinful, he willingly accepted the offered salvation. This ac- 
complished, that same Providence which permittexl the slave trader 
to bring him away from Africa, now influences the master's heart 
to send his Christian slave back to the land of his fathers, with 
the tidings of salvation to its people. * 

Again, we repeat : Providence, unquestionably, designs to teach 
a lesson to Christians, by the permission of the African slave 
trade and African slavery By the introduction of these two 

* Among the Episcopal missionaries who went to Abbeokuta, in 1846, was 
the Rev. Samuel Crowther, a native of Yoruba, who had been captured by the 
Fellatahs, in 1821, and sold to the traders at Lagos. Shipped on board a slaver 
for Brazil, recaptured by an English cruizer, educated at Sierra Leone, ordained 
to the ministry of the Gospel in England, he had now returned, after twenty- 
five years of absence from his native land, to proclaim the way of salvation to 
his relatives and countrymen; and he had the inexpressible gi-atification of 
finding his mother and two sisters, soon after his arrival, and of being instru- 
mental in the conversion of his mother to Christianity. "Ethiopia," p. 215. 

Mr. Crowther, although carried off by the slave traders, was never enslaved — 
being recaptured before reaching Brazil. Other similar instances have occur- 
red, where the captives have returned, after having endured many years of 
slavery. 



SLAVE TRADE AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION. 41 

great elements of progress, into connection with modern civili- 
zation, npt only were the Christian nations awakened to the im- 
portance of commerce and manufactures, as means of national 
aggrandizement, but they Avere made acquainted with the condi- 
tion of Africa and its population. The abject state of its people 
was not the effect of their subjection to a superior race ; but the 
deep degradation into which they had sunk was the result of 
their own doings. The slave trade, in some respects, had ren- 
dered African society less bloody in its customs, while in others, 
perhaps, it had increased its rapacity. But all these things were 
to be swept away before the dawn of the millennial glory, and the 
Gospel brought to bear upon Africa as upon other lands. How 
was this to be done ? The fatality of its climate to the white 
man, would effectually prevent his rendering much aid in the 
work, as a resident missionary. And, again, the delays that 
would be imposed upon him, in the study of a new language, 
would increase the difficulties attending the introduction of the 
Gospel among that people. Foreseeing these, and all other ob- 
stacles to African evangelization, as also the action of the Church 
in behalf of the African race, events, under Providence, were so 
ordered, that the barbarian was brought to the Christian, instead 
of awaiting the tardier and more dangerous plan of the Christian 
going to the barbarian. 

But this was not all. The removal of the African from his 
own country, to take his place beside the christian teacher, in a 
distant land, so far anticipated the awakening of the Church to a 
sense of her duty, that the slave, using a foreign tongue, was 
taught the Christian's language, and prepared to comprehend the 
teachings of the Gospel, before the message of salvation reached 
his ears. Here was a very mysterious providence, requiring not 
the aids of inspiration for its interpretation. And more than this 
was effected. These children of Africa, instead of roving hither 
and thither at will, were compelled to remain, from year to year, 
on the same estates, thus allowing each succeeding Sabbath to 
present the same persons to the religious teacher — a condition 
of restraint that could not be secured in Africa, and which, at- 
tended with Christian instruction, was more favorable to moral 
improvement than any elsewhere afforded to the colored race. 



42 PULPIT POLITICS. 

And, yet, there were those in the United States, as well as in 
the West Indies, who refused to accept this providential revelation 
of the Divine will to the Church. But this refusal was from very- 
different motives, and by very different classes of persons. In 
the West Indies, the opposition to giving Christian instruction to 
the blacks, came from the slave owners ; in the United States, it 
came from the ministers of the Gospel, In the former case, it 
has been reckoned as purely Satanic in its origin ; in the latter, 
its results have been sufficiently disastrous to indicate that it had 
a similarity of origin. With us, whole denominations, nearly, 
shrunk back from the task of giving the Gospel to the slaves, 
except on condition that the master would first set them free. 
This was not exactly the form of the proposition, but practically 
it amounted to the same thing. In the early days of slavery, 
there were no regular missionaries, as now, among the blacks. 
The ministers could not be supported except by the patronage 
of the master ; and he would not pay a ministry that cast him 
out of the church. The ministers, therefore, had to leave, and 
both master and slave were suffered to remain without the 
means of grace ; or, else, were forced to seek some other denom- 
inational connection, where their relations were understood and 
recognized. 

And what has been the history of these religious bodies, who 
thus refused the Gospel to the poor barbarian slave, unless they 
could, at the same time, place him on terms of legal equality with 
his civilized master ? What has become of these professed am- 
bassadors of Christ, who could stand aside and see the poor bond- 
man sink to perdition, without offering him the salvation that 
would lead him to heaven, except on the condition that they could 
first secure to him his personal freedom on earth ? We shall call 
upon one of the aged ministers of the Gospel, to answer this 
question.* He once took the lead, as we shall see hereafter, in 
the anti-slavery movement in his Church. In the Christian In- 
structor, of Philadelphia, October, 1861, we find him saying : 

" The truth must be spoken at all hazards. There is but 'one body ; ' 
Christ has but one Church on earth. But it is sadly rent and dis- 

* Rev. David McDill, D. D., now of Illinois. 



SLAVE TRADE AND AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION. 43 

figured by divisions, so that it does not appear to be ' one.' Its glory 
is sadly sullied with envying and strife. 

" And the divisions, and their accompanying envyings and strifes, 
have been greatly multiplied within the last half century, though we 
have been accustomed to regard it as the era of Bible and Missionary 
Societies, as well as of greatly increased Christian activity and enter- 
prise. The writer can look back to a time within his remembrance, 
when there was one Baptist, one Methodist, one Associate, one Asso- 
ciate lleformed, one Reformed, and one General Assembly Presbyterian 
Church, 

" How is it now — how has it been during the period of which we 
have just spoken? The Baptist Church has divided into three parties, 
the Methodists into three, the Associate into three, the Associate Re- 
formed into three or four, the Reformed into four, the General Assem- 
bly Presbyterian into six, viz : The Cumberland Presbyterians, the 
Old School Presbyterians, the New School Presbyterians, the Free 
Church Presbyterians, the Old School Presbyterians South, and the 
New School Presbyterians South. True, some of these parties contin- 
ued but for a little time, but still, they wei-e divisions, and they existed 
long enough to produce some strife, and some scandal. Instead of 
preaching Christ, and him crucified, they were under a kind of neces- 
sity which led them too often to inveigh against the errors and cor- 
ruptions of all the others, especially of those who came the nearest to 
themselves in faith and practice, and from whom they had separated, 
to convince all that the schism was not causeless, and that they were 
the only party or ' church ' which was fashioned according to the 
pattern shown in the Mount. Thus the attention of many was, in a 
sad degree, directed to some ' peculiarities,' and turned away from the 
vital truths of the Gospel. Without inquiring who was to blame, or 
who was not to blame, for causing these divisions, have we not reason 
to regard Christ as addressing us — we mean the body of professing 
Christians — and putting the question to our consciences : Whereas, 
there are among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not 

carnal? We are not to look for much more Christian 

union, till the Church in all her branches become less carnal and more 
spiritual." 

But lest any one should imagine, as some have done, that the 
advancement made by the negro race under slavery is a necessary 
result of that system, and is not due, alone, to the Christian in- 
struction they have received, in connection with slavery, it is only 



44 PULPIT POLITICS. 

necessary to refer to the condition of the shaves in those countries 
where they have not enjoyed the teachings of the Gospeh In all 
such cases, their barbarism is yet complete, and they are left as 
monuments to admonish Christendom that nothing, save their 
careful moral instruction, can ever elevate them to the level of 
the civilized races. Indeed, before this volume is complete, it 
will be demonstrated, that freedom and slavery are both alike 
powerless in the redemption of the African race, where careful 
Christian training is not employed ; and more than this will be 
proved, as the facts will show that, in their present condition, 
wherever freedom prevails, and they are left unprotected and un- 
restrained, they are, generally, so far incapable of caring for 
themselves and their offspring, that they are every where tending 
to extinction, instead of advancing in numbers and intelligence. 

It would seem, then, that the mission of the slave trade, 
considered in a Providential point of view, when all the facts 
before us are taken into account, has been to bring African bar- 
barism into contact with Christian civilization, as a preliminary 
step toward the ultimate evangelization of the negro race. Nor 
has this work of negro instruction been required, without an 
equivalent being rendered. The contact of civilization and bar- 
barism, in this case, has been of such a nature as to be of the 
greatest possible advantage, in an economical point of view, for 
a long series of years, to the nations engaged in tropical and sub- 
tropical cultivation ; and it was only after centuries had elapsed, 
during which the moral instruction of the negroes had been 
neglected, that the nations so acting were deprived of their slaves, 
and their tropical possessions involved in ruin. A noted example 
is found in the loss of Ilayti by the French ; and an equally strik- 
ing one exists in England's losses in her West India colonies. 
In these islands, the planters very generally refused the religious 
teacher any access to their slaves ; and a whirlwind of excitement 
raised in England, nearly three hundred years after the introduc- 
tion of slavery, swept away their property interest in the black 
man forever. 

The United States, as we shall see, has most fully met the 
designs of Providence in permitting the slave trade ; as from the 
first, the religious instruction of the slaves has been an object of 



INFLUE^'CE OF SLAVERY ON POPULATION. 45 

attention. Nor lias she been content with the home instruction 
only of her slaves. By means of the Colonization Society, she 
has taken the preliminary steps necessary to the ultimate evan~ 
gelization of Africa, thus aiming at obeying the teachings of 
Providence, as connected with the permission of the slave trade 
to the civilized nations. 

But we must conclude our remarks on this head. The theory 
under consideration — that the slave trade is incompatible with 
African evangelization — may be considered as sustained, only so 
far as its direct action upon Africa is concerned; but it is subject 
to modifications, so far as relates to its indirect action, and sup- 
plies a grand example of the manner in which the Almighty can 
bring good out of evil. The history of the slave trade, while 
revealing to us the heaven-daring wickedness of the people of 
Africa, affords a striking illustration of the general truth, that 
when God has designs of mercy toward a wicked people. He visits 
them with judgments which are adapted to secure their repent- 
ance and lead them back to Himself. 

Section II. — That Slavery, wherever it prevails, is ad- 
verse TO AN increase OF POPULATION. * 

A brief review of the history of American Slavery, will demon- 
strate that this theory is not of general application, however true 
it may have been as applied to British Colonial Slavery. 

The act of Congress prohibiting the slave trade, took effect in 
1808. The act of the British Parliament, to the same effect, went 
into operation at the same time. The two nations made an equal 
start in attempting to arrest that traffic. The importation of 
slaves into the United States, at this date, including the periods 
before and after their independence, was about 400, 000. f The 
importation into the British West Indies, including the period in 
which they were under Spanish rule, was 1,700,000. | After 

*Tlie reader may not understand the laws of population; it may, therefore, 
be remarked, that in all prosperous communities, the births are from four to 
six per cent, per annum, and the deaths from two to three per cent., giving an 
increase, annually, of from two to three per cent, to the population. 

t Compend. of U. S. Census, 1850. 

X Of this number the Spaniards imported 40,000. 



46 PULPIT POLITICS. 

1808, the traffic in slaves could no longer be prosecuted under 
the sanction of law in either country, and their importation was 
discontinued. 

The United States census for 1830, shows that our African 
population at that date had increased to 2,328,642, of whom 
319,599 were freemen, being an increase on the 400,000 originally 
imported of more than 1,900,000, The census of the British 
West Indies, taken in 1835, under the emancipation act, shows 
that these islands, at that date, had a negro population of only 
660,000, being a decrease of more than 1,000,000 on the number 
originally imported. * 

From these facts, the difference in the American and the British 
systems of slavery, in their effects upon the increase of popula- 
tion, can be readily inferred ; and it will be easy to perceive, 
also, how the American and the Englishman — like the two 
knights of old, when looking at the opposite sides of the bi-col- 
ored shield — should have adopted antagonistic theories on this 
question. 

It is only in the light of these facts, that any satisfactory ex- 
planation can be given, why that eminent philanthropist, Sir 
Thomas Fowell Buxton, in 1831, when commenting on the 
enormous decrease of the slave population in the West Indies, 
should have employed this language : 

" Where the blacks are free they increase. But let there be a 
change in only one circumstance, let the population be the same in 
every respect, only let them be slaves instead of freemen, and the 
current is immediately stopped." f 

Here is the theory of a British philanthropist, based upon the 
workings of slavery under British rule. Must the American ac- 
cept this theory, because a philanthropist is its author? Must 
he let it pass unquestioned, while five distinct American census 
returns stamp it as erroneous? Why did not Mr. Buxton ex- 
amine these returns, before announcing his theory ? Why did he 
not state the true cause of the constant decrease of the slave 

* See Compend. of U. S. Census, 1850. 
t North British Review, August, 1848. 



INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON POPULATION. 47 

population in the West Indies, and its corresponding rapid in- 
crease in the United States? The cause of this diflference in 
results, could have been easily explained. In the West Indies, 
the disparity in the sexes, and the neglect of infants, produced a 
continuous decrease of population ; while in the United States, 
the care taken of infants by white women, and the equality of 
the sexes among the slaves, produced the enormous increase given 
-above. Added to this, was another feature in the history of the 
two systems of slavery — the British and American — which 
marks, in a striking manner, their difference of effect upon human 
life. Before the cultivation of cotton and sugar had assumed 
any very prominent position in the commerce of the United 
States — indeed, before any regular exports of cotton had com- 
menced — provision had been made for the abolition of the slave 
trade. The American planter, therefore, when regular exports 
had commenced, and were rapidly increasing, was placed in a 
position in which his reliance for an increase of labor had to 
depend, entirely, on the natural increase of his slaves already in 
possession. And, even had he been desirous of greatly increas- 
ing his laborers, by importations from Africa, between the periods 
of the adoption of the Constitution and the prohibition of the 
slave trade, he could not have done so, as the Revolution had left 
him too little money to effect that object. The care of the slave 
children thus became a matter of great importance to the Ameri- 
can master. Quite different, however, was the situation in which 
the English planter had been placed in the West Indies. There, 
for a century before the prohibition of the traffic in slaves, tropi- 
cal cultivation by slave labor had been conducted with great 
profit. To secure to herself the advantages of this cultivation, 
Great Britain, in 1713, by the treaty of Utrecht, obtained the 
monopoly of the slave trade for thirty years. The great activity 
with which the traffic was prosecuted, at this period, is referred 
to elsewhere. Such was the ease, then, with which slaves could 
be procured from Africa, that it became much less expensive to 
import them, than to raise them on the plantations. The labor 
of the mother in the field was vastly more valuable than her 
services in the nursery. Again, as the most aggravated feature 
in the whole system, it was found that, by over-working, a slave 



48 PULPIT POLITICS. 

could be made to produce as much in four or five years, as, by 
ordinary labor, he would do in eight or ten. The aim of the 
planter — or rather of his overseer, the owner of the estate being 
usually a non-resident — was, therefore, to get the greatest possi- 
ble amount of work out of the slave in the least possible time ! 

Such was West India slavery as compared with that of Amer- 
ica. It will now be apparent to the most superficial thinker, 
that the theory under consideration received a sad proof' of its 
truth in the history of British Colonial slavery; but that it is 
Avholly untrue, as applied to the slavery of the United States. 

Section III, — That Slavery presents an insuperable bar- 
rier TO THE Evangelization of the Africans subjected to its 
control. 

We shall limit the investigations under this head, in the pres- 
ent chapter, to the period preceding West India Emancipation, 
so that the contrast between British slavery and American slav- 
ery, as retarding or promoting the conversion of the colored 
people, can be more clearly made out, and the differences in the 
results be better understood. When this is done, the contrast can 
be continued in another chapter ; so as to show the difference in 
the missionary success under freedom, in the West Indies and 
other parts of the world, and under slavery in the United States. 
The claims set up for emancipation as an economical measure, 
must also be considered, in connection with the question of its 
moral advantages. 

More than this, however, will be necessary, to illustrate the 
whole of the bearings of American slavery, and to determine 
whether, in the present condition of the colored people, their sub- 
jection to servitude does or does not present a barrier to their 
christianization. This point, fortunately, can be determined more 
readily in connection with American slavery, than with the ope- 
rations of the system of African bondage anywhere else; because 
the work of emancipation began, in the United States, at an early 
day, and soon a large number of colored people, in a state of 
freedom, appeared in the community. Thus, the two classes — 
slaves and freemen — have existed together ever since the origin 



EARLY AMERICAN COLONISTS AND SLAVERY. 49 

of the government — the first census, in 1790, showing a free 
colored population of nearly 60,000. The fact that a large por- 
tion of the freedmen have been wholly separated from the slave 
population, by a geographical line, makes the task of tracing the 
results the more easily performed. In this field of investigation, 
as well as in that concerning the West Indies, many collateral 
topics must be introduced, in illustration of the subject under 
consideration. The character of these discussions may be infer- 
red from the following statement of the subjects examined: 

1. The Christian character of the early immigrants of the North 
American Colonies ; their estimate of the influence of barbarism 
upoii free institutions ; and the diversity of the means adopted to 
avoid the evils anticipated by an increase of the negro popula- 
cion. 

2. Opinions of Revolutionary statesmen upon the subject of 
negro slavery, and the propriety and prospects of general eman- 
cipation. 

3. Effects of emancipation upon the negroes of the United 
iStates, previous to the period of West India Emancipation. 

4. Contrast of ihe results of freeing the blacks in the North, 
with the continuation of them in shivery in the South. 

5. Deductions from the facts stated. 

With this approximate statement of the topics to be examined, 
we may proceed with our investigations : 

1. Tiie CJiristian character of the early immigrants of the North 
American Colonies; their estimate of the influence of barbatism 
aport free insiitutions ; and the diversity of the means adopted to 
avoid the evils anticipated by an increase of the negro population. 

As, in closing the preceding chapter, the godless character 
of the white settlers in Jamaica is referred to as contributing, 
mainly, to the hindrance of the Christian missions among its 
black population, so, in approaching the investigation of the 
facts relating to the favorable influence which American Slavery 
has exerted over the cause of the Gospel among our African pop- 
ulation, it will be necessary to refer to the Christian character 
of the early white settlers of this country, as contributing, chief- 
ly, to the greater success here. 
4 



50 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Like the white settlers of Jamaica, numbers of the earlier emi- 
grants to America, were exiles from the country of their birth — 
not as criminals, self-exiled, to escape the punishment justly due 
for crime, but exiles on account of their religious belief. The 
intolerant zeal for religious uniformity, prevailing in Europe, 
compelled many of its population to flee from persecution to this 
country, where they could worship God according to the dictates 
of their own consciences. No lengthened eulogy of these men is 
needed — the Christian character of the majority of them being a 
matter of history. With them the school house and the church — 
the sources of intelligence and morality — were objects of the 
first importance. They believed that the perpetuity of the free 
institutions they hoped to found, would depend, not upon any 
magic in the mere possession of freedom, but in the intelligence 
and morality of their posterity. 

These were not the men to deny the Gospel to any human be- 
ing. On the contrary, the Indian and the African both received 
attention, and both were instructed in the Christian faith. But 
while they labored for the moral elevation of these children of 
barbarism, they refused to admit them to the privileges of citi- 
zenship. No morbid sentimentality, upon the subject of human 
rights, could induce them to overlook the dangers into which they 
might precipitate themselves, by conferring upon savage men, or 
even the half-civilized, equal privileges in the government of the 
country. 

Time rolled on, and the period of the American Revolution 
approached. The slave trade, forced upon the colonies by the 
mother country, was revealing, more and more, the difliculties 
attendant upon the presence of a barbarous population in the 
midst of a civilized people. At the North, where slave labor in 
the field proved to be profitless, it was felt to be a grievous bur- 
den. So fully had this sentiment fixed itself upon the public 
mind, especially in the northern colonies, that there was no diffi- 
culty in securing an expression of opinion hostile to the slave 
trade. It was not so much because the negroes were held as 
slaves, that the colonists objected to their importation, as because 
their barbarism presented a barrier to the prosperity of the coun- 
try. This was the true state of public opinion. 



EARLY AMERICAN COLONISTS AND SLAVERY. 51 

An opportunity for the expression of these sentiments was 
presented, when the Boston Port Bill passed the British Parlia- 
ment. All commerce was at once destroyed, and various meet- 
ings were immediately called, to consider the best plan to be 
pursued for the redress of grievances. The measures finally 
adopted, by the colonies, were designed mainly to be retaliatory 
upon the commerce of Great Britain. Accompanying the reso- 
lutions adopted by the Colonists generally, were another class 
of resolutions upon the question of the slave trade. These were 
passed in many of the counties of Virginia, in some of the Col- 
onial conventions, and, finally, in those of the Continental Con- 
gress, in which the slave trade, and the purchase of additional 
slaves, were specially referred to as measures to be at once dis- 
continued. In substance they declare, as the sentiment of the 
people : 

" That the African trade is injurious to the colonies ; that it ob- 
structs the population of them by freemen ; that it prevents the immi- 
gration of manufacturers and other useful emigrants from Europe from 
settling among them ; that it is dangerous to virtue and the welfare of 
the population ; that it occasions an annual increase of the balance of 
trade against them; that they most earnestly wished to see an entire 
stop put to such a wicked, cruel, and unlawful traffic ; that they would 
not purchase any slaves hereafter to be imported ; nor hire their vessels, 
nor sell their commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned 
in their importation. South Carolina and Georgia did not follow the 
example of Virginia; and North Carolina, in resolving against the slave 
trade, but acquiesced in the non-intercourse policy, until the grievances 
complained of should be remedied." * 

The plan adopted by the Colonists, to force Great Britain to 
terms, included the policy of non-intercourse. Her foreign com- 
merce had then a value of but eighty millions of dollars per 
annum^ nearly one-half of which, directly and indirectly, was 
dependent upon her North American and West India colonies, 
and the African slave trade. The colonies resolved not to import 
or consume any British manufactures, or West India products ; 
and not to export to the mother country, or the West Indies, any 

* Cotton is King embraces, in detail, the facts on this subject. 



52 PULPIT POLITICS. 

of their own productions. * The non-importation of negroes 
formed a part of this policy. 

" The North American colonies could not have devised a measure so 
alarming to Great Britain, and so well calculated to force Parliament 
into the repeal of her obnoxious laws, as this policy of non-intercourse. 
It would deprive the West Indies of their ordinary supplies of pro- 
visions, and force them to suspend their usual cultivation, to produce 
their own food. It would cause not only the cessation of imports from 
Great Britain into the West Indies, on account of the inability of its 
people to pay, but would, at once, check all demand for slaves, both in 
the sugar islands and-in North America — thus creating a loss to the 
mother country, in the African trade alone, of three and a half millions 
of dollars, and putting in peril one-half of the commerce of England." j 

These details are necessary to enable the reader to understand 
the true nature of the opposition to the slave trade existing at 
that period. 

Another remark, in this connection, upon a different point: 
That the emancipation of the negroes was not contemplated by 
those, in general, who voted for the non-intercourse resolutions, 
is evident from the subsequent action of Virginia, where the 
greater portion of the meetings were held. They could not have 
intended to enfranchise men, whom they declared to be obstacles 
in the way of public prosperity, and as dangerous to the morals 
of the people. Nor could the signers of the Declaration of In- 
dependence have designed to include the Indians and negroes, in 
the assertion that "all men are created equal;" because these 
same men, in afterwards adopting the Constitution, deliberately 
excluded the Indians from citizenship, and forever fixed the ne- 
gro in a condition of servitude, under that Constitution, by in- 
cluding him, as a slave, in the article fixing the ratio of Con- 
gressional representation on the basis of five negroes equaling 
three white men. The phrase — "all men are created equal" — 
could, therefore, have meant nothing more than the declaration 
of a general principle, asserting the equality of the Colonists, be- 
fore God, with those who claimed it as a divine right to lord it 
over them. The Indians were men as Avell as the negroes. Both 

* See American Archives, toI. I. t Cotton is King, page 233, 3d edition. 



EARLY AMERICAN COLONISTS AND SLAVERY. 53 

^Yere within the territory over Avhicli the United Colonies chiimed 
jurisdiction. The exclusion of both from citizenship, under the 
Constitution, is conclusive that neither Avas intended to be cm- 
braced in the Declaration of Independence, with any reference to 
their admission to an equality with the whites, in the government 
about to be established. 

The successful issue of the American Revolution, loft the peo- 
ple highly elated with their achievement. Exalted ideas of the 
value of personal freedom prevailed, and its power in remedying 
all human ills was believed to be almost omnipotent. Every 
measure, therefore, which promised an enlargement of human lib- 
erty, was readily accepted by the public. For a time, the maxims 
of the fathers — that intelligence and morality are essential to 
the success of free government — seem to have been overlooked. 
This, however, was true only in reference to the North ; and 
even there, the public sympathy was not extended to the Indian, 
but limited to the negro. 

It was under these circumstances, and during the prevalence 
of these opinions, that the Legislatures of the Northern States 
commenced their legislation on the subject of slavery. The Rev- 
olution had closed, the treaty of peace had been signed, Sept. 3, 
1783, and the new Constitution adopted, March 4, 1789. 

In 1780, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts passed their meas- 
ures for the abolition of slavery : the latter by a Constitutional 
provision, and the former by a legislative act — the one making 
emancipation immediate^ the other gradual. Eight years later, 
Connecticut and Rhode Island followed their example. The work 
of emancipation, begun by the four States named, continued to 
progress, so that in fifteen years from the adoption of the Fed- 
eral Constitution, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and New 
Jersey had also enacted laws to free themselves from slavery — 
some of them by the immediate and others by the gradual sys- 
tem. * 

* Dates of Emancipation in the United States: 

Pennsylvania, on March 1, 1780, by Act of Legislature. 
Massachusetts, on March 2, 1780, by Court, 
Connecticut, on March 1, 1784, by Legislature. 
Rhode Island, on March 1, 1784, by Legislature. 



54 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The earlier legislation of the Churches occurred in connection 
with these schemes of State emancipation. In the measures 
adopted by the ecclesiastical courts, generally, they only aimed 
at a friendly cooperation with the civil authorities. But while 
this was substantially the case, they, at the same time, used lan- 
guage of general application, guarding it, however, by exceptions 
as to the States which had not passed emancipation laws. 

The clergymen of the South readily acquiesced in the measures 
proposed. As ambassadors of Christ, they were to proclaim his 
Gospel to fallen men. Where no hindrance existed to the per- 
formance of their duties, they were not concerned about the re- 
peal or modification of civil laws. As they were not required 
by their northern brethren to unchurch believing slaveholders, 
or to make war upon the institutions of the Southern States, they 
were perfectly willing to allow northern clergymen, in turn, the 
fullest latitude in their experiments upon the negro at the North. 
So long as they of the South were exempted from the rules 
adopted on slavery, they cared not what terms of church fellow- 
ship were imposed at the North. -•■ 

It was a great problem that was about to be solved. Could the 
negro population be rendered more accessible to the Gospel by 
freedom, or would the restraints of slavery, properly regulated, 
aflford equal advantages in laboring for their conversion. The 
test, so far as it had been made in the West Indies, Avhere the 
planters opposed the missionaries, had been unfavorable to the 
theory that slavery might not be adverse to the work of the Gos- 
pel among the blacks ; but this did not discourage eiforts at the 
South, where the masters acknowledged their Christian obliga- 
tions, and were willing to have the precepts of religion taught to 
their slaves. 

Practically, the question at issue between the ecclesiastics of 
the North and the South was this : Can the negro be evangelized 
while in slavery ? Southern clergymen accepted the challenge. 

New Hiimpshire, on Feb. 8, 1792, by Legislature. 
Vermont, on July 4, 1793, by Constitution. 
New York, on July 4, 1799, by Legislature. 
New Jersey, on July 4, 1804, by Legislature. 
* See the Rules of the Methodist Church, on a subsequent page. 



OPINIONS OF EAf.LY STATESMEN ON SLAVERY. 55 

and, to test tins question, proceeded to enlarge their fields of 
operation for the conversion of the slaves. They did this the 
more confidently, because they were not about to enter upon an 
untried experiment. Already had the Gospel made considera- 
ble progress among the blacks. The Methodists, in 1793, report 
16,227 colored members in their churches, while, in 1787, they 
had but 1,890 — such had been their rapid increase. From some 
cause, perhaps the working of the emancipation laws, the mem- 
bership was reduced, in 1795, to 12,170.* 

From other denominations we have no regular statistics for this 
period. In the history of the Presbyterians, however, it is stated 
that the work of the religious instruction of the blacks had been 
commenced as early as 1747, in Virginia, with very encouraging 
success. In one congregation in that State, in 1755, about 500 
colored members are reported, and about an equal number in 
another congregation. In a third congregation, some time later, 
200 are reported, for the care of whom black men had been 
ordained as elders. It is further stated, that multitudes of the 
colored people, in different places, were willingly and eagerly 
desirous to be instructed in religion. f 

2. Opinions of Revolutionary Statesmen upon the subject of 
Negro Slavery, and the propriety and prospects of Emancipation. 

Before proceeding to contrast the results of the efforts, North 
and South, in behalf of the blacks, it may be well to notice, more 
at large, the opinions entertained, in relation to the negro race 
and the propriety of emancipation, by some of our statesmen, 
subsequent to the Revolution. 

■■■■ See Minutes of Conferences of the Methodist Episcojial Church. The sta- 
tistics of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as presented in the published Min- 
utes of that denomination, first separate the colored from the white members 



in 1787. From this date to 1795, 


the 


returns are given by congregation: 


follows: 






In 1787, - - 1,890 members. 


In 1702, - - 13,871 members. 


" 1788, - - - 6,545 " 




" 1793, - - - 16,227 " 


" 1789, - - 8,243 " 




" 1794, - - 13,814 


" 1790, - - -11,682 




" 1795, - - -12,170 


" 1791, - - 12,884 







t Hand Book of the Slavery Question, by Rev. John Robinson. 



56 PULPIT POLITICS. 

On the question of negro equality, by emancipation, and the 
social and civil commingling of the two races, black and white, 
Mr. Jefferson took negative ground. He was inclined to consider 
the African inferior " in the endowments both of body and mind " 
to the European ; and, while expressing his hostility to slavery 
earnestly, vehemently, he avowed the opinion that it was impos- 
sible for the two races to live equally free in the same govern- 
ment — that "nature, habit, opinion, had drawn indelible lines of 
distinction between them" — that accordingly, emancipation and 
"deportation" (colonization) should go hand in hand — and that 
these processes should be gradual enough to make proper pro- 
visions for the blacks in a new country, and fill their places in 
this with free white laborers. * 

That Mr. Jefferson was considered as having no settled plans 
or views in relation to the disposal of the blacks, and that he was 
disinclined to risk the disturbance of the harmony of the country 
for the sake of the negro, appears evident from the x)pinions 
entertained of him and his schemes by John Quincy Adams. 
After speaking of the zeal of Mr. Jefferson, and the strong man- 
ner in which, at times, he had spoken against slavery, Mr. Adams 
says : " But Jefferson had not the spirit of martyrdom. He 
would have introduced a flaming denunciation of slavery into the 
Declaration of Independence, but the discretion of his colleagues 
struck it out. He did insert a most eloquent and impassioned 
argument against it in his Notes on Virginia ; but, on that very 
account, the book was published almost against his Avill. He pro- 
jected a plan of general emancipation, in his revision of the 
Virginia laws, but finally presented a plan leaving slavery pre- 
cisely Avhere it Avas ; and, in his Memoir, he leaves a posthumous 
warning to the planters that they must, at no distant day, eman- 
cipate their slaves, or that worse will follow ; but he w'ithheld 
the publication of his prophecy till he should himself be in the 
grave." j 

Mr. Jefferson was not alone in his views of the difficulties at- 
tending emancipation. Dr. Franklin, in 1789, as President of 

* Randairs Lil'e of JefiFcrson, vol. I, page 370. 
t Life of John Quincy Adams, pages 177, 178. 



OPINIONS OP EARLY STATESMEN ON SLAVERY. 57 

the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, issued an appeal for aid 
to enable his society to form a plan for the promotion of industry, 
intelligence, and morality among the free blacks, and he zealously 
urged the measure on public attention, as essential to their well- 
being, and indispensable to the safety of society. He expressed 
his belief, that such is the debasing influence of slavery on human 
nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with care, may 
sometimes open a source of serious evils ; and that so for as 
emancipation should be promoted by the society, it was a duty 
incumbent on its members to instruct, to advise, to qualify those 
restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty. 
The state of public sentiment, at this period, on the subject of 
emancipation, was stated by Mr. Jeff'erson, January 24, 1786, in 
his answers to questions propounded by M. de Meuisner : 

"I conjecture there are 650,000 negroes in the five Southern States, 
and not over 50,000 in the rest. In most of these latter, eifectual 
measures have been taken for their future emancipation. In the 
former, nothing is done toward that. The disposition to emancipate 
them is strongest in Virginia. Those who desire it, form, as yet, the 
minority of the whole State, but it bears a respectable portion of the 
whole in numbers and weight of character, and it is continually re- 
cruiting by the addition of nearly the whole of the young men as fast 
as they come into public life. I flatter myself it will take place there 
at some period of time not very distant. In Maryland and North 
Carolina a very few are disposed to emancipation. In South Carolina 
and Georgia, not the smallest symptom of it, but, on the contrary, 
these two States, and North Carolina, continue importations of slaves. 
These have long been prohibited in all the other States." -'' 

These statements of Mr. Jefferson, made the year preceding 
the founding of Sierra Leone, contradict the claims set up in 
modern times, that the sentiments of the fathers of the Republic, 
were almost unanimously in favor of emancipation. Dr. Frank- 
lin, too, as above quoted, while fixvoring emancipation, was con- 
vinced that many difficulties and dangers surrounded that policy, 
both to the negroes themselves and to society, unless the means 
of instruction should accompany their admission to freedom. 

* JefFerson's Complete Woi-ks, voL IX, page 290, 



5S PULPIT POLITICS. 

Time has shown that the x'lews of Dr, Franklin were the most 
rational of all those who wrote upon the subject of emancipation. 

3. Effects of Freedom upo7i the Negroes of the United States, 
previous to West India Emancipation. 

The tone of the ecclesiastical legislation, up to 1830, will be 
seen by reference to the cliapters on that subject. It was con- 
servative in its character, generally, and in some instances 
agreed with the opinions expressed by Franklin. But it partook 
of the foreign type, strongly indicating that the disposition of 
clergymen to interfere in civil affairs, would be the same here, in 
this free government, that it had been in Europe for centuries 
past. Yet, notwithstanding this zeal for emancipation, the moral 
culture of the free colored people, may be said to have been 
almost totally neglected; and their degradation, throughout the 
North, had become so much a matter of public notoriety, as to 
lead to the adoption of Colonization, as the only hope of their 
elevation. Their separation from the whites was considered 
essential to their moral redemption. This had become the prev- 
alent sentiment from 1816 to 1830. Why had this opinion been 
adopted? Why had not the moral progress of the blacks kept 
pace with their advancement in personal freedom ? Leaving these 
questions to the reader, we shall proceed to the statement of the 
results which followed the emancipation of the blacks : 

" How far Franklin's influence failed to promote the humane object 
he had in view, may be inferred from the fact that, forty-seven years 
after Pennsylvania passed her act of emancipation, and thirty-eight 
after he issued his appeal, one-third of the convicts in her penitentiary 
were colored men ; 'though the preceding census showed that her slave 
population had almost wholly disappeared — there being but tico hun- 
dred and eleven of them remaining, while her free colored people had 
increased in number to more than thirty thousand. Few of the other 
free States were moi-e fortunate, and some of them were even in a worse 
condition — one-half of the convicts in the penitentiary of New Jersey 
being colored men. 

"But this is not the whole of the sad tale that must be recorded. 
Gloomy as was the picture of crime among the colored people of New 
Jersey, that of Massachusetts was vastly worse. For though the uum- 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION AT THE NORTH. 59 

ber of lier colored convicts, as compared witla the wliites, was as one 
to six, yet tlie proportion of her colored population in the penitentiary 
was o-he out of one hundred and forty, while the proportion in New 
Jersey was but one out of clglit liundred and thirty -three. Thus, in 
Massachusetts, where emancipation had, in 1780, been immediate and 
unconditional there was, in 1826, among her colored people, about six 
times as much crime as existed among those of New Jersey, where 
gradual emancipation had not been provided for until 1804." * 

The moral condition of the colored people in the free States, 
generally, at the period we arc considering, may be understood, 
more clearly, from the opinions expressed, at the time, by the 
Boston Prison Discipline Society. This benevolent association in- 
cluded among its members. Rev. Francis Wayland, Rev. Justin 
Edwards, Rev. Leonard Woods, Rev. William Jenks, Rev. B. B. 
Wisner, Rev. Edward Beecher, Lewis Tappan, Esq., John Tappan, 
Esq., Hon. George Bliss, and lion. Samuel M. Hopkins. 

The first annual report of this Association was made in 1826, 
the second in 1827. In discussing the progress of crime, with 
the causes of it, they give the first place to the degraded character 
of the colored population ; and, from the facts stated, derive an 
argument in favor of their education. They mention, also, as a 
remarkable fiict, that about one-fourth part of all the expense in- 
curred, by the several States mentioned, is for the colored con- 
victs ; and argue, that, if their character can not be raised, where 
they are, a powerful argument is thereby afi'orded in favor of 
colonization. The statistics presented by the society, enable us 
to state the proportion of the whole population sent to the peni- 
tentiary, with the proportion of the colored population imprisoned 
therein, for 1826, in the five States named below, and the propor- 
tion of the colored to the white convicts : 





Proportion of the 
Population sent to 
Prison. 


Proportion of the 
Colored PopyJon 
sent to Prison. 


Proportion 
of Colored to 
white conv ts. 


In Massachusetts, - 


- 1 outof 1GG5 


1 out of 140 


1 to 6 


In Connecticut, - 


- 1 out of 2350 


1 out of 205 


1 to3 


In New York, - - 


- 1 out of 2153 


1 out of 253 


1 to 4 


In New Jersey, 


- 1 out of 3743 


1 out of 833 


1 to 3 


In Pennsylvania, - 


- 1 outof 2191 


1 out of 181 


1 to 3 



* Cotton is King, page 3'i 



OU PULPIT POLITICS. 

The second report shows that, in New Jersey, the proportion 
of the colored convicts to the white convicts was one to two^ while 
the proportion of the colored population to the white was one to 
thirteen. In Massachusetts the proportion of the colored popu- 
lation to the w^hite was 1 to 74, in Connecticut 1 to 34, in New 
York 1 to 35, and in Pennsylvania 1 to 34. 

To the testimony of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, may 
be added that of the General Assembly Presbyterian Church, on 
the degraded condition of the free colored population. In 1819, 
the question of encouraging the American Colonization Society 
being overtured to the Assembly, they adopted, along with an 
approval of that Society, the following language : 

" The situation of the people of color in this country, has frequently 
attracted the attention of this Assembly. In the distinctive and indel- 
ible marks of their color, and the prejudices of the people, au insu- 
perable obstacle has been placed to the execution of any plan for ele- 
vating their character, and placing them on a footing with their 
brethren of the same common family." 

The Assembly, after thus acknowledging that the free colored 
people are placed in a position in which insuperable obstacles 
exist to their elevation, proceed to express the hope that their 
removal to Africa may not only favor their elevation, but be the 
means of introducing the Gospel to the benighted nations of that 
continent. Again, in 1825, the Assembly recur to the subject, 
in connection with colonization, and say : 

" The General Assembly having witnessed with high gratification 
the progress of the American Colonization Society, in a great work of 
humanity and religion, and believing that the temporal prosperity and 
moral interests of an extensive section of our country, of a numerous, 
degraded and miserable class of men in the midst of us, and the vast 
continent of Africa, now uncivilized and unchristian, are intimately 
connected with the success of this institution, therefore, resolved," &e. 

The resolution recommends the churches, under the care of the 
Assembly, to make contributions to this object on the 4th of 
July. 

That the common conviction of the community, at this period, 
was nearly uniform, as to the degraded condition of the free 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION AT THE NORTH. 61 

blacks, and the undesirableness of having them as neighbors, is 
still more apparent from the action of the Indiana Yearly Meet- 
ing of Friends, in 1826. The folloAving '>ve extract from their 
published minutes : 

" The committee charged with the concerns of the people of color, 

made the following satisfactory report : We having received a 

communication from the Trustees of the North Carolina Yearly Meet- 
ing, describing the difficult and perilous situation of a number of per- 
sons of color under the care of Friends, and informing, that some of 
them inclined to remove to the States north of the Ohio river, and re- 
questing our attention to them. After solidly deliberating on the sub- 
ject, and having our minds clothed with feelings which breathe ' good 
will to men,' we have come to the conclusion to inform Friends, that 
we are free to extend such assistance to those who may be found among 
us, as our means will permit ; and, although it is desirahle to avoid an 
accession of this class of population as neighbors, we are concerned to 
impress it on the minds of all, that our prejudices should yield when 
the interest and happiness of our fellow-beings are at stake ; and that 
we exert no influence that would deprive them of the rights of free 
agents, in removing to any part of the world congenial to them ; and 
that Friends everywhere render them such assistance, in procuring 
them employment, and promoting a correct deportment among them, 
as occasion may require." 

The testimony in relation to the degraded condition of the free 
colored people, at the period under consideration, might be great- 
ly multiplied, as the facts were very fully brought out by the 
discussions on Colonization ; but we care not to dwell upon this 
melancholy topic. As, in England, the negroes, declared free by 
Lord Mansfield's decision, became a nuisance requiring govern- 
ment aid for its abatement; so, in the United States, the free 
colored people became a burden too heavy to bear, and demanding 
the aids of Colonization to remedy the evil. Thus, in both cases, 
the efforts for Africa's redemption were produced by the evils 
falling upon society, as a necessary consequence of emancipation. 

Nearly a half century had now elapsed, since the Northern 
States had commenced the work of emancipation, and since the 
first acts of ecclesiastical legislation, favoring that object, had 
been spread out before the Christian w^orld. The free blacks, as 



62 PULPIT POLITICS. 

a body, had made no progress, morally, beyond that of their con- 
dition in slavery; but remained overshadowed by all the moral 
gloom which had darkened their souls under African barbarism. 
The facts show that northern Christians, busied with their own 
cares, either had grossly neglected their duty; or the freedom of 
the colored man, while commingled with a superior race, was 
unfavorable to his evangelization. 

But the history of the times proves more than this. It is a 
fact, the truth of which cannot be controverted, that the clergy, 
at the period under consideration, much more willingly engaged 
in efforts to control the civil legislation of the country, in refer- 
ence to slavery, than in projecting and sustaining measures for 
the elevation of the free colored men, at their doors, to the po- 
sition in morality and intelligence which a patient course of 
Christian instruction was calculated to effect. 

Here, now, is an accurate picture of the moral condition of the 
free colored population of the North, at the period approaching 
the time of the West India Emancipation, and of the inaugura- 
tion of modern abolitionism in the United States. The difference 
in the moral condition of the free colored people at the North, 
as contrasted with that of the slave population at the South, will 
be understood on the examination of the facts given in the next 
chapter. It was at the close of the period we have been con- 
sidering, that the British theories on slavery began to be urged 
on this country, and universal emancipation claimed to be indis- 
pensable, both to the economical prosperity of the South, and to 
the evangelization of the blacks. 

4. Contrast of the results of freeing the blacks in the North, 
with the continuation of them in slavery at the South. 

Under the preceding head, we have seen the discouraging con- 
dition into Avhich the free colored people were thrown, at the 
North, by the systems of emancipation adopted. We shall now 
proceed to give the main facts, in reference to the moral progress 
of the slaves at the South, so that the legitimate results of the 
two systems may be brought into fair contrast : the North giving 
freedom, and withholding the means of moral elevation; the South 
subjecting to restraint, but supplying the means of moral pro- 
sress. 



RESULTS OP EMANCIPATION, NORTH AND SOUTH. 63 

The American clergymen who accepted the British theory — 
that slavery and African evangelization are incompatible — must 
have taken but little care to understand the question, or else they 
must have willingly closed their eyes to the most important facts. 
British Colonial slavery furnished them the data upun which they 
based their opinions ; but they failed to perceive, that the hin- 
drances to the Gospel, in the West Indies, arose, not essentially 
from slavery, but from the hostility of the slaveholders. They 
were blind, as only a fanatical spirit can render men blind. They 
had before them not only the facts which demonstrated that the 
blacks had made progress under American slavery ; but they had 
the additional fact, that the free colored people of the North had 
made less progress, as a body, than the slaves of the South. The 
reason of this difference in results is obvious. At the North, tlic 
negro, while a slave, was considered a burden, to be cast off at all 
hazards; and when he was driven into freedom, no one felt any 
responsibility for his moral culture. Thrown upon society in a 
state of destitution, what could the poor colored man do, but — 
as he did in London, under the decision of Lord Mansfield — fall, 
as a helpless child, into neglect and degradation — filling the 
jails and workhouses, instead of taking the proud stand which 
freemen should maintain. But it was not so in the South, so far 
as the progress in crime was concerned. This was due, doubt- 
less, to two causes : the restraints of slavery, and the increasing 
attention paid to their religious instruction. ]\Iany Christian 
masters felt their responsibility, before God, for the welfare of 
the souls of their slaves. Lender the influence of this obligation, 
they either gave instruction themselves to their blacks, or allowed 
the ministry to teach them. With fixed homes, and the rigid 
restraints of slavery, controlling their movements, the religious 
teacher was certain, from Sabbath to Sabbath, of finding the 
same slaves meeting him for moral training. If this had not been 
the case, how could such results have followed, as are found to 
have occurred. Let us examine them : 

All the religious denominations can tell of the fruits of their 
labors, in this field of toil, and can point to the evidences of their 
success. But the Methodists were not only eminently successful 
in the work, but have preserved accurate statistics of the results. 



64 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



From the minutes of that denomination, therefore, vce shall cull 
out the evidences to disprove, tr.iumphantlj, the British theory 
on slavery, as applicable to slaves in America; and to shovr, con- 
clusively, that the northern ecclesiastics were in error in sup- 
posing that slavery necessarily prevents the evangelization of the 
blacks. They overlooked the great truth, that God, in his Prov- 
idential care of the world, never places men in conditions where 
the blessed Gospel of his Son is not adapted to their circum- 
stances. Had this truth been felt, in its legitimate power, by 
northern Christian hearts, the free colored people would not have 
been so strangely neglected, as though they had no interest in 
the Great Salvation ! 

But we must proceed with the proof of these assertions. The 
minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from 1796 to 1801, 
was given by States, and presents the following as its colored 
membership : 



STATES. 



1797 i 1798 1799 , 1800 1801 



Vermont 

New Hampshire 

Maine 

Massaohusetts , 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

North West Territory. 
Upper Canada 



218 

105 

380 

811 

4,910 

2,458 

1,288 

825 

146 

43 

84 



2 

15 

238 

127 

198 

832 

5,106 

2,490 

2,071 

890 

148 

42 

57 



11 

1 

22 

245 

163 

224 

939 

4,950 

2,432 

1,810 

1,179 

222 

49 

51 

"3 



11 

1 

17 

276 

167 

309 

900 

5,079 

2,312 

1,659 

1,169 

216 

51 

65 



Total. 



11,280 12,218 12,302 12,236 13,452 15,688 



5,497 

2,531 

2,109 

1,283 

262 

62 

115 

2 

3 



Tho dotted lines ( ) indicate that the Church had not yet been organized. The dash, ( ) 

that the Church had been organized, but had no colored members of that date. 



Here, at the very time when it was doubtful whether a mission- 
ary could maintain a foothold in the West Indies, the Methodists 
in the United States had a colored membership exceeding 15,600, 
of whom more than 14,000 were in the States which had passed 



RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION, NORTH AND SOUTH. 



G5 



no emancipation la-^^'s — Xew Yoi'k having passed hers in 1799, 
and New Jersey in 1804. 

To understand the point illustrated by the foregoing statistics — 
the degree of success attending the labors of the Methodists 
among the colored population — it is necessary to show the rate 
of progress among the whites also ; and to give the number of 
free blacks and slaves in the several States. They stood as 
follows : 



STATES. 


WHITE 
MEMBERS. 

1796 


WHITE 

MEMBEBS. 

1800 


FEEE COL'b'D 

POPBLATIOS. 

1800 


SLAVE 

POPULATION. 

1800 




357 

63 


1,197 
171 

1,095 
1,571 

224 
1,546 
6,141 
2,857 
2,887 
1,626 
6,549 
10,859 
6,363 
3,399 
1,403 

681 
1,626 


818 

856 

557 

6,452 

.3,304 

5,330 

10,374 

4,402 

14,561 

8.268 

19,587 

20,124 

7,043 

3,185 

1,019 

309 

741 


8 

381 

951 

20,343 

12,422 

1,706 

6,153 

105,6.35 

345,796 

133,296 

146,151 

59,404 

13.584 

40,343 








S22 
220 
1,042 
3,826 
2,246 
2.631 
1,417 
7,506 
11,321 
7,425 
2,834 
1,028 
503 
1,666 


Rhode Island 




New York 








Maryland 












Kentucky 


Total 


44,912 


50,226 


106,930 


886,173 





The clotted lines ( ) indicate that the Chnrch had not yet been organized. 



Continuing these statistics to 1811, during which time the mis- 
sions at Sierra Leone had made no progress, and the slaves of 
the West Indies were still, mainly, in the darkness of barbarism, 
we find that the colored membership of the Methodists had in- 
creased to more than 35,700. The statistics are given by Con- 
ferences. It will be noticed that the greater number, by far, are 
in the slave States : 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



COiS'FERENCES. 


1803 

464 
2,815 
3,794 
6,414 
8,561 
14 

391 


1804 j 1805 


1806 


1807 


1808 


1809 


1810 


1811 


Western 


518 
3,446 

3,757 

6,877 

8,442 

59 

432 


736 
3,831 
3,573 
6,805 
8,914 
56 

401 


630 
4,389 
4,548 
7,221 
9,782 
62 

625 


621 

4,432 

5,668 

7,453 

10,899 

56 

734 


795 
5,111 
5,834 
7,143 
10,524 
64 
837 


1,117 

6,284 

5,739 

7,200 

10,534 

73 

937 


1,144 

8,202 

6,150 

7,452 

10,714 

69 

942 

51 


1,467 

9,129 

6,232 

7,438 

10,354 

73 

986 

53 


South Caroliua 








jSTew York 




Total 
















22,453 


23,531 


24,316 


27,257 


29,863 


30,308 


31,884 


34,724 


35,732 



The dotted lines ( ) indicate that the Church had not yet been organized. 

Passing by an interval of several years, during whicli the Con- 
ferences were multiplied, and the colored members greatly in- 
creased, we next select the nine years ending with 1834. This is 
an important epoch, as it was in this year that the British Eman- 
cipation Act went into operation in the West Indies, and the 
slaves were all placed in the relation of apprentices to their old 
masters. The returns are given by the Conferences: 



CONFERENCES. 


1826 


1827 


1828 


1829 


1830 


1831 


1832 


1833 


1834 


Pittsburgh 


194 

184 

2,821 

64 

1,485 
2,112 
2,494 

is'fos 


206 

195 

2,812 

125 

'"350 
1,620 
2,075 
2,724 

16,55.5 


201 

208 

3,650 

124 

""335 
1,864 
2,257 
3,283 

18, Too 


176 

193 
3,682 

116 


.350 
2,012 
2,499 
3,576 

ii^Vo 


163 

268 

4,884 

172 

""414 
2,182 
3,248 
4,247 

24,5*38 


175 

274 

5,284 

276 

•*"*45i 
2.362 
3,733 

»4,247 

i9,'i44 

6,167 

9,194 

lOMo 

8,549 

418 

261 

8 

69 


187 

344 

4,594 

204 

"nil 

2,319 
3,624 
5,185 

2a,l'9^ 

7,330 

8,210 

11,560 

8,516 

615 

289 

8 

56 


261 

321 

4,651 

61 

182 

756 

2,316 

3,805 

2,645 

2,770 

22,326 

7,946 

7,447 

12,732 

8,960 

586 

304 

8 

49 


285 


Ohio 


502 


Kentucky 


5,709 


Illinois 


72 


Indiana 

Missouri. 


273 
996 


Holston 


2,593 




4,674 




2,622 


Alabama 

South Carolina 


3,163 
22,788 
7,421 




7,847 

9,406 

7,650 

378 

250 

6 

110 

36 


8,567 

9,507 

8,043 

371 

248 

6 

120 


9,090 
10,402 
8,354 

428 

135 

12 


9,756 

10,.302 

8,159 

371 

220 

.1 

74 


9,967 
10.454 

8,169 
281 
245 

11 


8,083 
13,851 






9,025 




616 




320 




8 




109 






Troy 


88 

8 
69,383 


■"iii 
11 


""iii 

11 


50 
111 

6 


69 
69 


Now Hampshire and 
Vermont 






59,056 


8 


Total 


51,084 


53,542 


62,814 


71,589 


n.,v 


78,293 


83,150 



The dotted lines ( ) indicate that the Church hivd not j-et been organized. The dash, ( ) 

that the Church had been organized, but ha<l no colored members of that date. 



The last year's report. 



DEDUCTIONS FROxM THE FACTS STATED. 67 

Here, at the very moment of British emancipation, and when 
the British theories were considered as demonstrated, the Metho- 
dist Church in the United States had more than 83,000 colored 
members, only 2,231 of whom were outside of the slave States 
and the Philadelphia Conference. This Conference covers con- 
siderable territory in the slave States. The total converts among 
the colored people, in all the religious denominations in the 
United States, at this date, could not have fallen far short of 
160,000.* It is worthy of note, that the colored membership of 
the Methodist Church, in the six New England States, was less 
than 330 ; while in seven of the slave States it was more than 
65,000. The New England States at this date, 1834, had a free 
colored population of 21,331, Nothing, therefore, is plainer, 
than that the spiritual welfare of the colored people was better 
promoted in the South, under restraint, and with the means of 
moral progress, than it was in the North, under freedom, but 
without the means of moral elevation. 

5. Deducf{o7is fr^m the fads stated. 

The moral condition of the free colored people in the United 
States, at the period under consideration, can noAV be understood. 
The founders of the American Republic had not erred in opinion, 
in reference to the burden which the African race might lay upon 
the shoulders of the people. Franklin, with the forecast of a 
philosopher and statesman, foresaw that emancipation, without 
education, would be fruitless of good to the negroes, and might 
open up a series of evils to themselves and society. The reports 
of the Boston Prison Discipline Society, the declarations of the 
Presbyterian General Assembly, and other authorities quoted, in 
relation to their degraded condition, are ample proofs that the 
early opinions entertained were founded in sound views of the 
negro character, in his then barbarous condition. The Prison 
Discipline Society's Report shows, that, in Massachusetts, after 
nearly fifty years of freedom had prevailed, one out of every one 
hundred and forty of the free colored population of that State 



*Tliis estimate is based on the fact, that the Methodist Church, at present, 
has less than one-half of the colored members in the slave States. 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



were in the penitentiary ; vrliile tlic Presbyteria* General Assem- 
bly asserts, that "in the distinctive and in-delible marks, of their 
color, and the prejudices of the people, an insuperable obstacle 
has been placed to the execution of any plan for elevating their 
character, and placing them on a footing with their brethren of 
the same common family." And, again, the Assembly speaks of 
them as " a numerous, degraded, and miserable class of men in 
the midst of us." 

In contrast with this deplorable picture of the moral degrada- 
tion of the free colored people of the United States at the date 
of West India emancipation, we have the encouraging fact, that 
the religious progress of the slave population had not fallen be- 
hind that of the whites, as to the rate of increase in church 
members, in any part of the Union, Of the 83,000 colored mem- 
bers in the Methodist Church at that date, not less, probably, 
than 75,000 were in the slave States, and were either slaves or 
dwelling in the midst of slavery. The other denominations, 
doubtless, had an equal number, making the total membership, 
among the colored people in the slave States, about 150,000. 
As the total slave population of the preceding census, was over 
2,000,000, it appears that nearly one out of every thirteen was a 
church member. * 

Thus, then, about the same time that one out of every 07ie 
hundred and forty of the free colored people of Massachusetts was 
in the Penitentiary ; about one out of every thirteen of the col- 
ored population in the slave States was in the Christian church — 
a happy difference of condition, truly, and supplying a forcible 
example of the difference in the effects of the northern and soutli- 
ern systems of policy upon the negro race. 

But we have a double contrast to make. In comparing the 
missionary results in the West Indies, during the existence of 
slavery, with those in the United States, among the slave popu- 
lation, during the same period, it does not appear that there was 
any difference in the degrees of success attained. Their missions 
were frequently broken up ; ours went on without interruption. 



* This estimate is only intended as an approximation. It does not includa 
the free colored people in the slave States. 



DEDUCTIONS FROM THE FACTS STATED. Qii 

Their religious teachers had to be supplied from Great Britain, 
and were fewer in number than ours ; the teachers of our colored 
population were more numerous, and lived among them, preach- 
ing to them, mostly in connection with their white parishioners. 
At the time of final emancipation, in 1838, they must have had 
near 80,000 African converts; in 1834, we had not less than 
166,000, including slaves and colored freemen. 

The conclusion, then, to which we are forced is, that the Brit- 
ish theory under consideration — that slavery presents an insu- 
perable barrier to the evangelization of the Africans subjected to 
its control — is not sustained by the results which happened up 
to the date of emancipation ; and that, therefore, the American 
ministers, who adopted it as true, have been laboring under a 
delusion — a delusion that has been fatal to the peace of the 
Church; fatal to the welfare of the African race; fatal to our 
beloved country! 



70 PULPIT POLITICS. 



CHAPTER III. 

EXAMEN'ATION OF THE ERROKS E? THE BRITISH THEORIES AS AP- 
PLIED TO AMERICAN SLAVERY AFTER WEST INDIA EMANCIPA- 
TION. 

Section I. — The Circumstances under which Abolitionism 
TOOK its Rise in the United States. 

The preceding chapters bring the history of the movements 
in behalf of the African race, down to the period of the final 
action of Great Britain on her Colonial Slavery. It was this im- 
portant measure that gave the impulse to the abolition movement 
in the United States. The American people had been looking to 
Colonization, for the previous seventeen years, as a means of 
relief from the burdens imposed by emancipation. But the sys- 
tem of Colonization worked tardily. The Society bad been unable 
to remove a tithe of the increase of the colored population. It 
was too slow in its operations to satisfy those who had been ac- 
customed to look forward to the total extinction of slavery. They 
had become excited by the passage of the British Emancipation 
Act ; and demanded, for the American bondmen, a more speedy 
redemption than that promised by Colonization. But Coloniza- 
tion had many supporters, who had full faith in its beneficent 
results, and who would not abandon the enterprise. Its contin- 
uance was considered, by many anti-slavery men, as an obstacle 
to the success of emancipation. The South, becoming jealous of 
the Society, denounced Colonization as an abolition scheme in 
disguise. The Society, in self-defense, had to define its position, 
as having reference only to the removal of the free colored peo- 
ple, and that it had no design of interfering with slavery. For 



ORIGIN OF ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. 71 

this reason, " the Anti-Shxvery Society began with a Jedaration 
of war against the Colonization Society." * The doctrine of " im- 
mediate, not gradual abolition," had been announced in England 
as the creed of the friends of the African race. Emancipation, 
they contended, was indispensable to the success of the Gospel 
among the blacks. Under various degrees of modification, this 
view was adopted by the anti-slavery men of the United States. 
In 1831, the first abolition society, of the modern type, was or- 
ganized in Rhode Island. In 1832, the anti-slavery movement 
was begun in Boston ; and, in 1833, a national organization, 
under the name of The American Anti-Slavery Society, f was 
founded in Philadelphia. This body boldly took the ground that 
nothing short of immediate and unconditional emancipation, could 
satisfy the demands of justice, and fulfill the righteous law of 
God — that as slaveholding, in every form in which it prevailed, 
was sinful, it was the duty of all engaged in it to cease immedi- 
ately, and that there could be nothing to fear from the conse- 
quences of so doing. % 

The North now everywhere resounded with the cry of " im- 
mediate abolition : " but while this motto was borrowed from the 
English abolitionists, their American imitators had no disposition 
to act upon the magnanimous principles adopted by the Eritish 
government, in giving a liberal compensation to the masters. The 
South were required to sacrifice all their wealth upon the altar 
of northern philanthropy : and British eloquence, in the person 
of Mr. George Thompson, was employed to give an impulse to 
the fanatical scheme. 

The year 1837 found the abolitionists numbering 1,015 socie- 
ties, having 70 agents in the field, and an income, for the year, 
of $36,000. II The Colonization Society, on the other hand, wns 
greatly embarrassed. Its income, in 1838, was reduced to §10,- 
000; it was deeply in debt ; the parent society did not send a 
single emigrant that year to Liberia ; and its enemies pronounced 
it bankrupt and dead. § 

The doctrine previously held by the few — that slavery is ne- 

■'• Geri-itt Smith, 1835. t This may be best designated by the ierm Abolition. 
X History of the Separation in Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends. 
II Life of Benjamin Lundy. § Cotton is King, p. 52. 



72 PULPIT POLITICS. 

cessarily sinful — and which lies at the foundation of all abolition 
action, now became the doctrine of the many. It demanded the 
exclusion of all slaveholders from the communion of the Church. 
This element in the controversy on slavery — so unlike anything 
taught by the Saviour and his Apostles, while laboring in the 
midst of slaveholders — can be dimly traced throughout the early 
ecclesiastical legislation of the North. In general, slavery was 
declared to be a moral evil ; but the idea connected with this 
phrase was the same as that attached to monarchical and despotic 
forms of government. According to the notions of right and 
wrong then prevailing, all laws which limited the personal free- 
dom of men, were pronounced moral evils, to be removed as 
speedily as possible, so that the whole world, ultimately, might 
become democratic. The idea of sinfulness was not generally 
attached to the phrase, in the sense that slavery, as a moral evil, 
■was to be classified with blasphemy, robbery, or murder. In the 
churches legislating on the subject, this view was long held, and 
all efforts were directed to the reform of abuses ; while, at the 
same time, they gave a hearty cooperation to the civil authorities 
in the promotion of emancipation, wherever that policy was agreed 
upon. 

At length, however, the doctrine that slavcholding is a sin 
began to prevail, and was introduced into church legislation. In 
some churches it soon gained the ascendency, in others it was 
held in check by more conservative principles. There was this 
difference between the aims of the churches and those of the 
Abolitionists. The ecclesiastical legislation, avowedly, aimed only 
at freeing the Church from slavery ; while the abolition action 
demanded, imperatively, that the government also should free it- 
self from the crime of human bondage, by immediate emancipa- 
tion. Thus it was, that there seemed to be a wide distinction 
between these two parties ; but it was a distinction without a 
difference. Both parties aimed at accomplishing the same ob- 
ject : the one by church legislation, the other by political ac- 
tion — both expecting their efforts to be crowned with the aboli- 
tion of slavery. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 73 



Section II. — What the early Anti-Slavery Writers taught 
IN relation to the Biele and Slavery. 

We must go back a little, in order to examine the opinions 
advocated by the earlier anti-slavery writers, who inaugurated 
the scheme of excluding slaveholders from the communion of the 
Church. This is the more necessary, as the clergymen to whom 
we refer, gave the impulse to the abolition movement, while un- 
dertaking only the task of purging the Church from slavery. 

We open Volume 1st of the Christian Intelligencer, published 
at Hamilton, Ohio, and edited by Rev. David McDill, * assisted 
by two other neighboring ministers of the Gospel. This period- 
ical was started at the time that the Associate Reformed Synod 
OF the West had under consideration the question of making 
slavery a term of communion — that is, the casting of slave- 
holders out of the Church. As this was a novel doctrine, it re- 
quired novel means to bring the people of that Church to assent 
to the proposition. On page 6th, we find this statement, as 
embracing the condition of the slavery question at that early day. 
The date is January, 1829 : 

" The question of slavery is, at the present time, agitated in several 
branches of the Church : but its character is much changed from what 
it once was. Formerly, as a practice which had long prevailed, and 
had rarely been called in question, it was supposed to be probably 
lawful ; f (1) and what was necessary to be done was to prove its im- 
morality ; (2) and by depicting its horrors, and showing its contrariety 
to the ' holy, just, and good law,' endeavor to awaken the public mind 
to a sense of its moral turpitude. (3) This ground is nearly won : and 
the object of the present and future efforts on the subject, must be, for 
the most part, to shew, that being a heinous sin, a system most contrary 
to the spirit of the Gospel, it ought not to be connived at in the 
Church. And so very different are these questions — so generally are 
Christian men now convinced, it would seem, that slavery is a moral 
evil of no small magnitude, that all reasonings from its moral character 

* Now Rev. David McDill, D. D., of Illinois. 

t The reader on subsequent pages, will find remarks on the points here noted 
by numerals. 



74 PULPIT POLITICS. 

are pronounced inapplicable to the question at issue, i. e. wliether tlie 
obstinate, irreclaimable holder of slaves should be excluded from the 
communion of the Church. If this be so — if so great a change has 
already been wrought on the public mind, that proving the immorality 
of slavery is only proving what no one denies, there is encouragement 
to hope that what remains will also in due time be accomplished : — 
that it will soon be conceded, that a system which is so bad, that no 
person can have a word to say in its direct vindication, ought to be 
speedily banished from the pale of the Church ; (4) and that we ought, 
all of us, to cease, and cease at once, from holding a language, which 
slaveholders do view as a special pleading for their practice." 

After referring to several Churches — the General Assembly 
Presbyterians, and his own, among the number — which had not 
yet taken decided action, the editor continues : 

" When we consider what has been done, and is still being done by 
the Quakers, Methodists, &c., if these bodies of professing Christians 
which have been mentioned as having the subject under consideration, 
would only disenthral themselves from all human schemes of policy 
and prudence, and stand forth on scriptural grounds, the decided advo- 
cates of justice, humanity, and equal rights and privileges to all God's 
rational creatures, in that system of things with which we are connec- 
ted, what happy results to the family of man might not be anticipated, 
from their harmonious and well-directed efibrts. If, instead of fold- 
ing up their hands and saying, we cannot touch the subject of slavery — 
the evils admit of no remedy, at least till the millenium — the laws 
lay an embargo on the cause of emancipation ; — they would only con- 
sider that public opinion is superior to the laws, so that tyrannical and 
oppressive laws cannot stand it out against correct and enlightened 
public opinion — that, if any of our fellow Christians are withheld 
from doing their duty, by laws which are an usurpation on the rights 
of men, and an enormity under the government of God, it is because 
public opinion has become corrupt through the apathy and supineness 
of those who ought to have been exerting themselves to keep it in a 
pure and healthy state ; and if every man who possesses a particle of 
influence, either direct or indirect, on the common weal, would rise up, 
and come forward, and bring with him all the aid in his power, to cor- 
rect the stream of human blessing in its fountain head ; — we should 
soon find laws relaxing from their rigor, customs melting down into 
goodness, and the obstacles which obstruct the current of emancipation 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTKIXES AND POLICY. 75 

giving way, (5) sooner than many wlio make goodly professions would 
be willing to see them." * 

The men who first commenced the anti-slavery agitation, are 
not to be charged with evil intentions ; but they are liable to the 
imputation of h^n'ng been influenced by a spirit of fanaticism 
that blinded their judgments — that led them to overlook the pro- 
gress made in the conversion of the slaves in the United States, 
and to greatly exaggerate the cruelties practiced upon them by 
their masters. The plan of action they adopted to revolutionize 
public sentiment, we have said, was a novel one. At that day, 
free discussion was not considered the best means of establishing 
a theory ; as, to allow it, might defeat the object of the reformer. 
Here is the language employed by the editor of the Christian 
Intelligencer, to announce the principles upon which the contro- 
versy was to be conducted : ^ 

'' As slavery is a plain practical question, claiming the attention of 
every one who has any part to act in the aifairs of the day, it is diffi- 
cult to see how any one can be without an opinion on the sabject. 
Our object, so far as this question is concerned, was, from the first, to 
sJio2v our ojyinion : and those who wish to meet and refute our views, 
er to see them met and refuted, must apply elsewhere. We can have 
no hand, either directly or indirectly, in perpetuating an evil so repug- 
nant to the laws of God, and so afflictive to the family of man ; nor 
are we under the influence of so much of that neutral feeling, which is 
necessary to the more 2)erfect examjoles of prudence, that we can obtain 
our own consent to labor in balancing the scale of argument, for the 
pleasure of leaving it in a state of equipoise." f (6) 

It may be well to explain, that the question of excluding the 
slaveholder from the Church, had been brought before the Synod, 
some two or three years before the Christian Intelligencer had 
been started ; and that one chief object of its publication was to 
advocate that measure, and free the Associate Reformed Church 
from all connection Avith slavery. A communication in opposition 
to the policy had been sent to the editor, and, on publishing it, 

* Christian Intelligencer, January, 1829, p. 7. 

t Ibid., June, 1829, p. 180. The italics are the editor's. 



76 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the foregoing announcement was made. Having thus secured 
himself against all assailants, the way was open for the circula- 
tion, among the people of the Church, of any opinions which the 
editor and his associates might choose to utter. Some of these 
opinions we shall present to the reader, that he may learn how 
the public became tinctured so readily with abolition sentiments. 
Appearing, as they did, from the pens of men who could quote 
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the statements made were received by 
their readers as true ; and no contradiction being allowed, their 
demonstration was reckoned complete. With the reasonings em- 
ployed, we need have nothing to do, at this late day. The con- 
clusions at which the writers arrived, are all that it is necessary 
to notice. The object they had in view, it must be remembered, 
was to secure the passage of an act, by their Church, excluding 
slaveholders from its communion. 

But before proceeding to make additional quotations, it will be 
well to analyze the programme of action adopted : * 

1. It is admitted by the editor that slaveholding, formerly, was 
supposed to be probably lawful. This was the opinion held by 
the British Churches, in reference to the Christian master, Mr. 
Gilbert, who first introduced the Gospel into Antigua; and in 
reference, also, to the masters, in the other islands, who built 
chapels on their estates, or aided in building them in their neigh- 
borhoods, for the benefit of the slaves. In all these cases the 
Christian slaveholder was treated as a brother beloved. The same 
sentiments long prevailed in the United States ; and only those 
slaveholders who refused to allow their slaves the benefits of the 
Gospel, were ranked as unchristian in heart and conduct. 

2. Such being the fixed opinion of Christians, generally, it was 
found necessary, before a revolution of sentiment could be pro- 
duced, to prove the immorality of slavery itself. To have labored 
for the conversion of the masters, and by that means to have se- 
cured their cooperation in the work of evangelizing the slaves, 
was not in accordance with the designs of the movers in the 
anti-slavery reform. This policy might have led to the conver- 
sion of both masters and slaves ; but then, such a result, leaving 

* The reader will observe that the several points noticed are indicated by 
numerals, and refer to corresponding figures in the quotations from the editor. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 77 

Christians contented with these fruits of their labors, would have 
tended to perpetuate slavery. Indeed, where masters were en- 
gaged in the religious instruction of the bond-men, the act was 
looked upon with suspicion, by Northern men, as not being 
prompted by any care for the spiritual welfare of the colored 
population ; but only as a means of satisfying public opinion, and 
perpetuating the legal claim to their slaves. On this subject the 
Synod of Indiana, in a memorial to The General Assembly 
OF THE Presbyterian Church in the United States, in 1829, 
uses the following language : 

" In fine, believing that the encouragement of Sabbath school in- 
struction, and other religious exercises, are too often resorted to by 
slaveholders merely as a compromise with public opinion, and to soothe 
the clamors of conscience, without any intention to ' let the oppressed 
go free,' so soon as by those means they may be prepared for the en- 
joyment of civil liberty — we do most earnestly, yet most respectfully, 
entreat your venerable body to take the subject into consideration, and 
to adopt such measures as in your wisdom may appear best calculated 
to effect a speedy and entire abolition of slavery within the bounds of 
the Presbyterian Church." * 

3, The next step taken, according to the programme, was to 
depict the horrors of slavery, and show its contrariety to the Di- 
vine Law, so as to awaken the public mind to a sense of its moral 
turpitude. In their discussions of this topic, no reference was 
made to the success attending the labors of other denominations 
among the slaves ; none to the fact, that the Methodists, alone, 
in that same year, 1829, reported their colored membership, in 
the United States, at 62,814, most of whom were slaves ; none to 

* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, May, 1829, p. 145. 

Note. — Even as late as 1844, this feeling was still entertained, and received 
its expression in the Fraternal Letter of the Synod of Nokthekn Indiana, in 
the following language: 

" That many masters strive to avert these evils from their slaves does not 
alter the general effect; and their example, by presenting the fairest aspect 
of slavery, quiets the conscience of the holder; and it may be said, without 
exaggeration, that the better a limited portion of the slaves are made, the 
worse it is for the whole, since the good of the few becomes a palliation for 
the evil of the many." — See Robinson's "Hand-Book of the Slavery Contro- 
versy." 



78 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the fact, tluat the several missions in the West India Islands had 
at least 80,000 converts among the slaves ; and none to the fact, 
that the denominations which had become most zealous in th.( 
anti-slavery movement, had, themselves, a very meager member- 
ship of whites, and had done little or nothing among the blacks. '<' 

4. The horrors of slavery being depicted, and the public mind 
awakened to its moral turpitude, the future mode of action was 
to show that, being a heinous sin, slaveholding ought not to be 
connived at in the church. 

5. The churches having taken their stand in denouncing slav- 
ery as a sin, and being firm in the discharge of duty in the ex- 
clusion of slaveholders from the church, their moral influence, it 
was believed, would be such as to bring the people to mould the 
legislation of the country, so as to prepare the way for emanci- 
pation. 

6. Emancipation, then, being the object at which the anti- 
slavery men aimed, the next step to be taken was the closing of 
the columns of their organ against all free discussion. The 
church was the agent to be employed in producing the proposed 
revolution. The exclusion of the slaveholder from its communion, 
was the means to be used in awakening public attention to the 
subject. But the ministry could not act without the concurrence 
of the people. The members of the church, therefore, were the 
tribunal to whom the decision had to be referred ; but only the 
advocates on one side of the case were permitted to plead, and 
only the testimony that would sustain their claims was allowed to 
be ofi'ered. These things seem strange at this day. Men having 
confidence in the justice of their measures, and intending to ad- 
here strictly to truth in their discussions, would blush, now, to 
ask such advantages in controversy. And yet, these gentlemen, 
doubtless, intended to act in strict conformity with duty. Their 
fault was that of the age in Avhich they lived. There was more 
or less of a disposition among certain clergymen of that day, to 
distrust the judgment of the people upon moral and religious 
questions. This was especially the case with those of the smaller 

■* The Associate Synod only i-eportecl 10,141 members, and the Associate Re- 
formed Synod of the West had a less number; the two combined not having 
over one-third as many members as the Methodists had of colored converts. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRENES AND POLICY. 79 

denominations, who were taking the lead in attempts to purge the 
church from the sin of slaveholding. Take an example or two. 
The Associate Synod had a rule prohibiting its people from hear- 
ing aught but the sermons of its own ministers. To listen to a 
sermon from any one else, was to incur the censures of the church; 
and if the offender manifested no sorrow for his sin, he was cast 
out until brought to repentance and reformation. The Reformed 
Presbyterian Church had a different rule, but it operated with 
equal efficiency in keeping its people from worshiping with those 
of other religious bodies. Its members were not censured, like 
the Associate Synod's people, for "occasional hearing," but were 
required to meet in "Society," on their silent Sabbaths, and 
always to be present when their own minister preached. The 
rules of both these denominations were carried out, at the period 
under consideration, with a great degree of strictness, and tended 
to foster and intensify the prejudices of their people against all 
other denominations. The Associate Reformed Church was more 
liberal in its rules, and allowed its people to exercise their own 
judgments as to listening to sermons from other ministers than 
their own. The editor, from whom we have quoted, was a minis- 
ter in this church; but while he was liberal in church discipline, 
he was unwilling to trust the people with a free discussion of the 
slavery question. To have permitted this in his periodical, he 
tells us, might have left the minds of his readers in " equipoise," 
and led them to reject the proposed reform in the discipline of 
the church. But his fault, and that of his associates, as we have 
said, was that of the age in which they acted. Men of education 
had not all learned to reason on the inductive system, but in- 
dulged in conjectures after the manner of the wise men of olden 
times. They were not careful to note all the facts and principles 
involved in the questions considered, but, indulging much in 
speculation, they ran into hasty generalizations, like tyroes in 
science, and, consequently, fell into egregious errors. In this 
fact is to be found the source of nearly all the conflicting theories 
in relation to the negro race. At best, all that had then been 
done for the colored people was mere experiment, and results, 
such as we have now, were unknown. It is not surprising, there- 



80 PULPIT POLITICS. 

fore, that what was then held as orthodox, should now be scouted 
as fanatical. 

The aim of the writers for the Christian Intelligencer', in under- 
taking the agitation of the question of slavery, in connection with 
ecclesiastical legislation, can now be understood. They found 
public sentiment endorsing the doctrine of the probable lawful- 
ness of slavery, and only condemning its abuses. To accomplish 
their object, they must change this public sentiment; and this 
they proposed to do, by proving the immorality of slavery itself, 
separate and apart from its abuses. This they expected to effect, 
by depicting its horrors, showing its contrariety to the Divine 
law, and thus proving its great moral turpitude. When this 
should be accomplished, and the practice of slavery proved to be 
a most heinous sin, the Church would be easily persuaded that 
she must no longer tolerate the system. This point gained, it 
was believed that the influence of the Church, expressed through 
her judicial acts, and thereby enforced upon her people, could 
control civil legislation and thus secure the emancipation of the 
slaves. * 

This, then, is the scheme they proposed; and we may now pro- 
ceed to show how it was carried out. To depict the horrors and 
show the moral turpitude of slavery were the first steps to be 
taken. The world had unanimously pronounced the slave trade 
a crime of the deepest dye. To show the moral turpitude of 



" The Aft-icans were stolen from their country ; no man will do him- 
self any credit by denying it : and that the actual holder of property 
which is known to be stolen, is as criminal as the thief, is both logic 
and laio^ f 

Again the editor says : 

" ^he principle of slavery is unrighteous — this is its condemnation. 
The practice can not be spared, and so regulated as to make it on the 

* It -will be seen, by reference to Chapter VII., that a few years later, the 
Associate Church attempted to carry out this policy, by interdicting freedom 
of opinion in her members in relation to voting. 

t Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, June, 1829, page 184. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 81 

ttf7io?e a blessing to any part of tlie human fjiinily — more than any 
other sinful practice." -^^ 

From the editor, we turn to one of his assistants, who under- 
takes to show the horrible character of American slavery, as 
compared with all other systems which ever had an existence. 
He comes to the following conclusions : 

" The slavery which existed in the Roman Empire in the Apostles' 
time, was by no means so debasing, hopeless, and oppressive, as negro 

slavery in our country." " No one can escape the 

conclusion, that slavery in modern times exists in its mildest form in 
countries where the Roman Catholic religion is the established religion, 
and where the government is despotic or imrely monarchical, as in the 
Spanish and Portuguese colonies — that it becomes more ferocious and 
oppressive in Protestant countries, where the government is a mixed 
monarchy, as in the British colonies — and that it is most debasing of 
all in countries, where the religion is purely Protestant, and the gov- 
ernment free and republican, as our 01011^ f 

This wholesale denunciation of American slavery, as the most 
ferocious, oppressive, and degrading system that ever existed, % 
and this unqualified condemnation of his own government, as 
sanctioning cruelties unheard of in the history of the world, may 
have been necessary to maintain the positions assumed in the 
anti-slavery programme ; but it was all based upon the sheerest 
conjecture as to Roman slavery, and was wholly destitute of any 
support from existing facts, so far as concerned American slavery 
as compared with that of the Portuguese, Spanish and British 
slave colonies. The reader will find these assertions fully sus- 
tained, by the opinions and facts elsewhere stated in this work. 

In the farther prosecution of the efi"orts to show that American 
slavery was contrary to the Divine law, and thus to influence 
Church legislation, it was necessary to refer to what the Apos- 
tles — the founders of the Church — had said and done in refer- 
ence to Roman slavery. Here, however, was complete silence. 

* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, February, 1829, page G4. 
tibid., August, 1829, page 230. 

X The writer, in his discussions, refers to slavery, generally, as vrell as to 
that of Rome. 

6 



82 PULPIT POLITICS. 

They found precepts to regulate the relation, but not a word of 
condemnation. This silence proved an exceedingly embarrassing 
difficulty. But it had to be met, and one of the assistant editors 
makes the attempt to dispose of it as follows: 

" Now, considering all these things, is it not, on the supposition that 
the Apostles did tolerate slavery, most unfair to reason from what the 
Apostles, in their circumstances, did, to what we, in our circumstances, 
should do, in regard to the toleration of this acknowledged evil ? May 
not much more be expected of us, and may we not attempt much more 
in its abolition ? x\nd now let the reader take into the account not 
only our more favorable civil relations, but also the superior knowledge 
of the age and nation, and the fact that in many important respects, 
the slavery which our opponents wish us, amidst ail the circumstances 
of the times, to tolerate from Apostolic example, is far more hopeless 
and debasing than that which, they say, the Apostles tolerated." * 

Again, he says : 

" I defy the world to prove that slavery was tolerated by the 
Apostles, and that it is in harmony with the spirit of the Christian 
religion." f 

And, again : 

"Slavery is contrary to the general principles of the Word of God, 
and to the spirit of the religion of the meek and lowly Jesus, our 
compassionate Redeemer. As might be expected of such a system, it 
gets no support from the Apostles. There is no evidence that they 
tolerated, in the Church, the slavery which existed in the Roman 
Empire ; and, even if they did, there is evidence, that the slavery of 
the Roman?, bad as it was, did not possess many of the most cruel, 
degrading, and hopeless properties of negro slavery, with which we 
have to do." % 

But what does all this amount to? The writer says, that even 
supposing the Apostles did tolerate Roman slavery, that is no 
reason why we should tolerate American slavery — the latter, in 

* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, August, 1829, page 242. 
t Ibid., August, 1829, page 229. 
t Ibid., September, 1829, page 266. 



AXTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 8d 

his opinion, being so much the more unrighteous of the two. But 
laying aside his hypothetical case, he becomes more bold, and 
defies the world to prove that slavery was tolerated by the Apos- 
tles. Then, again, as if doubtful of this point, he comes back to 
the first supposition, and avers, that even if Roman slavery was 
tolerated by them, there is no evidence that it was as bad as our 
slavery. Here wc are still upon the old platform — that the 
Church is only required to deal with the abuses of slavery. If 
Roman slavery had been as bad as American slavery, then, ac- 
cording to this writer, the Apostles could not have remained 
silent, but must have spoken out in its condemnation. 

A step beyond this had to be taken, therefore, so that some- 
thing more convincing than hypothesis and assertion might be 
afforded. Another assistant editor, coming to the rescue, thus 
<ittempts to meet the difficulty : 

" Again it is said, slavery was practiced in the visible church while 
the Apostles were yet living ; and that instead of testifying against 
slavery, they put it under regulation, giving directions to masters and 
servants ; which fact, it is thought, gives us a warrant to tolerate it 

now I deny that they taught the lawfulness of such slavery 

as this : or that they tolerated such an evil without testifying against 
it. They could not do ever}' thing at once, although they were in- 
spired men. I think any person who will take a view of the history 
of Gods Church throughout the former dispensation must see, that 
idolatry and other abominations were practiced in the church while 
she had inspired teachers : reader, look into the .writings of the proph- 
ets, and see if this were not the case. Why did not the inspired men 
keep out all visible immorality? Yea, there were inspired men who 
practiced polygamy. Now, if it be no reflection upon these inspired 
men to purge out certain evils which they did not keep out, neither is 
it any reflection upon the Apostles to endeavor to purge out what, ac- 
cording to some, they did not purge out."* 

Here, again, is a denial that Roman slavery was as bad as ours, 
or that the Apostles tolerated it, without testifying against it. 
And, as an apology for their seeming neglect, in not making it a 
prominent object of discipline, as they did idolatry, he supposes 

♦ Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, March, 1830, page 65. 



84 PULPIT POLITICS. 

thej found it impracticable to do every thing at once : and then 
goes on to say, that idolatry, and other abominations, vrere prac- 
ticed in the Church of God, under the former dispensation, ^hile 
she had inspired teachers ; and that, if it be no reflection upon 
them that they did not keep idolatry out of the Jewish Church, 
neither is it any reflection upon the Apostles that they did not 
purge out slavery from the Christian Church, which they were 
founding. The writer, however, neglects to remind the reader, 
that all the inspired teachers were loud in their denunciations of 
idolatry, and did extirpate it whenever they had the power, as the 
priests of Baal found to their dismay and ruin; but that the 
Apostles, in no instance, denounced slavery, or ever attempted to 
make such an example of any slaveholder, that all should be 
deterred from the practice by the dread of the judgments of 
Heaven. But we must hear this writer some farther : 

" I will go a step farther and state, that if the Apostles did not per- 
ceive that such slavery as existed among ics is contrary to the law of 
Grod, it does not follow that it is sanctioned by that law. Bishop But- 
ler compares the sacred penmen to the collector of certain memoirs 
written by others. He who wrote the memoirs is supposed to under- 
stand fully what he intended in his own writing, and what he intended 
is the true sense. The compiler, however, may not always see the 
whole of what was intended : so God always understands all the proper 
applications of his word, though the penman, perhaps, in many in- 
stances did not see the whole of its intention The prophets 

had to study their own writings : the Apostles we may suppose had to 
do the same. What they wrote we likewise have to study as the 
Providence of God directs." * 

Xow, what have we here, but a denial that the Apostles com- 
prehended, with certainty, the Divine mind, as to the plainest 
moral duties. Why should such a startling and unscriptural doc- 
trine as this be advocated by these writers? The reference is 
not to prophecies relating to future events, such as were recorded 
bv the Old Testament prophets, but to moral duties relating to 
the conduct of the members of the Christian Church. The answer 
is at hand. The writers had been met by the startling fact, that 

* Ckristiaa Intelligencer. Hamilr.Q. Oh^ >. March, 1830, page 6-5. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 85 

the Saviour and his Apostles adopted no rule to exclude slave- 
holders from the Church, Idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, 
robbery, bearing false witness, covetousness, were all broadly con- 
demned as inconsistent with the Christian character. But slavery 
was nowhere specifically forbidden. On the contrary, the relative 
duties of parent and child, husband and wife, magistrates and 
people, master and servant, were all clearly pointed out. The 
logical inference from this fact, was, that all these relations were, 
in themselves, lawful, and that abuses of authority, only, were to 
be condemned. 

But our reformers had demonstrated, to their own satisfaction, 
that American slaveholding was a heinous sin — a sin as heaven- 
daring as the slave trade — which could not be tolerated by the 
modern churches. How to reconcile their doctrines with the 
action of the Apostles, presented a difficulty of no small magni- 
tude. Resolute men, however, do not stop at difficulties ; it is 
their province to overcome them. With military men, what can 
not be accomplished by fair combat, is to be carried by strategy. 
Surely, ministers, in Avarring with the Prince of Darkness, may 
profit by the example — being careful, however, that they are not 
manning a masked battery of the enemy of souls. Having 
silenced the opposition, by refusing free discussion in their col- 
umns, these writers could utter any charges they chose against 
the system of slavery, or against their own government for con- 
tinuing to give it support. 

But the silence of the Apostles on the subject of slavery, seems 
to have given the editor quite as much trouble as it did his asso- 
ciates. He had pronounced slaveholding as equally criminal with 
slave trading. That was surely to stamp the character of the 
master as so blackened with crime, as to make him a fit associate 
only for demons ; and, hence, he must be cast out of the church, 
and delivered over to Satan. In accomplishing this work, the 
task would have been easy, but for the want of scriptural precept 
or example. The silence of the Apostles on the subject, there- 
fore, was an exceedingly vexatious fact that had to be disposed of 
in some plausible manner. The assistant editors had been unable 
to demonstrate the sinfulness of slavery, in the abstract, from 
either the acts or the writings of the Apostles; and, unless this 



S6 PULPIT POLITICS. 

could be done, the people could not be induced to abandon their 
old theory — that slavery, like prevailing forms of despotic gov- 
ernments, was not necessarily sinful, but became so only by 
abuses of the power possessed. The editor also lent his aid, to 
give greater certainty to the work. 

In replying to strictures made upon views which he had pre- 
viously expressed,* he said that he had taught that idolatry was 
" a system incorporated with the civil institutions of the Romans, 
and diametrically opposed to the doctrines of the Gospel;" and 
that slavery was " a system incorporated with the civil institutions 
of the Romans, and contrary to the spirit of the Gospel indeed, 
but yet not so diametrically opposed to the Gospel but that the 
two might coexist for a time : and hence reasoned, that though 
the Apostles may have pursued a different course in relation to 
the one from that pursued in relation to the other, the church 
may, notwithstanding, under her present circumstances treat them 
both as really if not equally deserving her censure." f 

This is still an admission, that Roman slavery could not have 
been considered, by the Apostles, as sin per se, like idolatry, 
otherwise it must have been denounced as equally sinful with idol 
worship ; and, yet, the editor, without informing us how the trans- 
formation was effected, assures us that slavery should now be 
considered as being really as censurable an offense as idolatry. 
But how does he reason himself into this belief? Simply, by 
denying that the Apostles were enabled to decide a question of 
this kind, as they had been in reference to the subject of idolatry. 
In effect, he says, of the Divine teachings, that slavery in despotic 
relations will be slurred over; but in connection with republican 
governments it is condemned. Look at it now, and it is wicked ; 
but look at it in a given former period, and its immorality is too 
doubtful to admit of attention. The Gospel is only a remedy for 
a part of human ills ; of some it can take no notice at all. When 
evils are complicated in civil relations, the sacred Scriptures will 
speak of them ; but in such a way as can only be understood after 
the lapse of ages and the change of nations. Evils and immor- 

* The Ovei-ture on Slavery, addressed to the Churches, is here referred to, 
■which was prepared by the editor. 

t Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, Februarj^, 1829, page 34. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 87 

alities, interwoven in civil relations, tliey will make a league 
with ; but when the civil relations are dissolved, they will attack 
them. Their moral tone is clear, and their utterance decided; 
but we must wait, in order to find this out, when the needed 
changes take place. But the editor continues : 

"In the details of their office — in the application of the 'law and 
the testimony ' to many particular cases, they [the Apostles] had only 
that hind of gracious assistance which may be ordinarily expected by 
the ministers of the Grospel ; and had to consult, deliberate, and deter- 
mine, as we have to do, according to the wisdom given them, before 
they acted." * " No man can — an Apostle could not, do every thing 
at once And be it remembered, the church was not com- 
pletely organized — or if you will, the whole system of doctrines and 
duties, was not delivered to the Church, till the last Apostle had writ- 
ten his last Epistle. As these Epistles were scattered among the 
churches to which they were written, there is not the least reason to 
believe, that any one individual, or any one church, had ever seen ail 
the inspired books of the New Testament, till long after the last Apos- 
tle had gone to be ' present with the Lord.' To suppose, then, that 
any one of the churches could have that knowledge, on any article of 
faith or duty, which lay ever so little out of the Apostle's common 
track of preaching, which we may have, by comparing all the scrip- 
tures one with another, is supposing a perfection among the Christians 
of that day, which we have no reason to suppose existed. The con- 
clusion, therefore, almost forces itself on us, that practices and omis- 
sions of duty, might have existed among them, which ought not to be 
tolerated in the Church now." f 

This is a picture of the primitive church, which few will be 
willing to recognize as true in fact. The Apostles, before the 
crucifixion, had been assured by the Saviour, that the Comforter, 
which is the Holy Ghost, should teach them in all things, and bring 
all things to their remembrance, whatsoever he had said unto 
them. J And, again, he assured them, that when He, the Spirit 
of truth, should come, he would guide them into all truth. § This 
gave the Apostles the most positive assurance, that they should 

■••■•• Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, February, 1829, page 35. 

t Ibid., February, 1829, page 36. 

t John's Gospel, xiv: 26. gJoIm, xvi: 13. 



88 , PULPIT POLITICS. 

have the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth, and to bring to 
their remembrance whatsoever the Saviour had said to them. 
Now, is it possible, as the editor would have us believe, that the 
Saviour left his disciples to grope their way in the dark, on a 
question affecting the personal rights of one-half the population 
of the Roman Empire ? Is it possible that the Holy Spirit would 
withhold all knowledge of the Divine will from them, on so im- 
portant a question ? And, is it possible, that the Apostles would 
be contented to remain in uncertainty, during all their lives, as to 
what duty required in relation to sixty millions''^ of bondmen, 
without once asking for Divine direction ? Most assuredly, they 
could not have thus acted, or been thus ignorant on the subject. 
The Saviour had informed them^ most particularly, that their 
prayers should be heard. His language is incapable of misinter- 
pretation : " And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will 
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask 
anything in my name, I will do it." f Now, according to the 
editor, the Saviour could never have instructed the Apostles as to 
slavery, the Holy Spirit could never have revealed to them the 
truth on the subject, nor did the Apostles ever ask for Divine 
direction to guide them in duty as to the slaves ! For, if any one 
of these things had occurred, the Apostles could not have been 
ignorant on so grave a question. 

But the editor had a theory to sustain, and an object to ac- 
complish. His object could not be effected, unless he could es- 
tablish his theory. He must prove that slavery in the abstract 
was sinful — that was the task he had undertaken — or the church 
would not cast out the slaveholder. He, therefore, attempts to 
convince his readers, that the Apostles had been silent on th<? 
subject — not because slavery was not sinful, but because they 

* Rev. Albert Barnes, in his -work on Slavery, quotes and adopts, from tlie 
Biblical Repository, the following statement in reference to the number of slaves 
in the Roman Empire in the Apostles' day: "It is unnecessary to enter into 
proof that slavery abounded in the Roman Empire, or that the conditions of 
servitude -were very severe and oppressive. This is conceded on all hands." 

"Of course, according to this, the number of slaves could not have 

been less than sixty millions in the Roman Empire, at about the time when the 
Apostles went forth to preach the Gospel." 

t John, xiv: 13, 14. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 89 

had SO much else to do that it had to he overlooked — the Holy 
Spirit seeing proper to give them, individually, no special reve- 
lation on slavery, but leaving the whole question to be determined 
by the church, in after years, from the careful study of the com- 
pleted revelation. And there it stood, without notice, from age 
to age, until the Christian Intelligencer, more than eighteen hun- 
dred years afterwards, began to shed its light upon the subject! 

Reader, can you suppose that slaveholding is sinful, and yet, 
that the Apostles never could find five minutes to say so; or 
never had any Divine directions how to deal with the slaveholder ! 
To say that the Apostles could not do everything at once, will 
in no wise account for the difference in the clearness of the sa- 
cred Scriptures on idolatry and slavery. If they could not do. 
everything at once, in regard to slavery, neither could they in 
regard to idolatry; and the excuse that they did not declare in 
regard to slavery, because they could not do everything at once, 
implies that their action in regard to idolatry was not inspired, 
but because it was in their power to attend to it at once. 

The editor continues : 

" As to the general subject of slavery, there was a reason why the 
Apostles might regard it as lying out of their wai/, which does not exist 
witli us. If there is any such thing as a historical verity, the Chris- 
tians to whom they wrote, lived under a military despotism — a gov- 
ernment most remote in its character from a Representative Republic. 
The people had no influence on the making or administration of the 
laws, more than our slaves. But we, the people, make our laws ; and 
from us, all our civil institutions take their character. In the sins of 
the government under which they lived, they had comparatively no 
share : and hence slavery, an evil growing out of their civil institu- 
tions, was a thing for which they were not accountable, as we are. 
The Apostles could not direct ' those whom they reformed ' to set im- 
mediately Hbout the ' work of reforming the social system.' They 
could only watch unto prayer, and wait in faith and hope till ' the 
greatness of the Kingdom ' should be on the side of righteousness. 

" The attention of the Apostles might not have been particularly 
turned to the subject for another reason. The condition of a slave 
was but little different from that of his master. The great mass of the 
population were rude and ignorant — human rights were not under- 



90 PULPIT POLITICS. 

stood — were little regarded — for any practical purpose, it was a 
matter of comparatively small importance, whether an individual en- 
joyed his inalienable rights or not." * 

Truly, the silence of the Apostles, on the question of slavery, 
must have been a great puzzle to the editor. This is an addi- 
tional conjecture, as to the reason why they may have passed 
slavery unnoticed, as well as failed to require emancipation as a 
condition of receiving the slaveholder into the Church. Let us 
examine it : the Roman government was despotic, the great mass 
of the population rude and ignorant, human rights not understood 
nor regarded, and, for all practical purposes, it was a matter of 
comparatively small importance, whether an individual enjoyed 
his inalienable rights or not. Here are the reasons, offered by 
the editor, why the Apostles did not urge emancipation. Can he 
tell us, if freedom would have been of no importance to an ig- 
norant Roman slave in the first century, of what value it would 
be to a still more degraded African slave in the nineteenth cen- 
tury ? But ignorance and degradation were not universal in 
Rome. Art, science, literature, iiourished in a high degree. Even 
slaves were often men of letters and of science, though subjected 
to the rigid rule of their masters. Surely, liberty would have been 
of value to them ; and yet the Apostles took no measures for 
their relief. If, then, the Apostles attached so little importance 
to human rights, as compared with the salvation of men, that 
they gave no directions for freeing the social system from slavery, 
why should the ministers of the Gospel now consider it necessary 
to make that topic one of leading interest in their ecclesiastical 
councils ? Again : if the Apostles found it necessary to occupy 
themselves so constantly in preaching the Gospel, that they found 
no time to attend to civil affairs, how is it that ministers can now 
turn aside to dabble in politics, without being chargeable with 
treason to their Divine Master, Avhose kingdom is not of this 
world ? And, again : if slaveholding be necessarily sinful, why 
was it not so under despotic Rome, as well as under Republican 
America ? 

* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, April, 1829. page 109. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AXL> POLICY. 91 

We must here repeat one of the editor's strongest propositions : 

" The Africans loere stolen from their country ; no man will do him- 
cself any credit by denying it : and that the actual holder of property 
which is known to be stolen, is as criminal as the thief, is both logic 
and laio.^' 

Failing to prove slaveliolding a sin per se, by either Scripture 
precept or example, the editor, to accomplish his purpose, be- 
takes himself to logic and law. He maintains, that the crimi- 
nality of the slaveholder grows out of the principle in law which 
makes the receiver of stolen property equally criminal with the 
thief. This is a novel mode, certainly, of settling the question 
of the sinfulness of slaveholding. But it is one that the Apos- 
.Um seem not to have recognized as correct, in their intercourse 
vrith the Roman people. The slaves then in the Empire numbered 
sixty millions of souls, and consisted, perhaps universally, of 
captives taken in war or their descendants. The wars in which 
the captives were taken, had been waged for the aggrandizement 
of the reigning tyrants, who, from generation to generation, had 
ruthlessly deluged the earth in blood, to gratify an unhallowed 
ambition. These were the slave traders of old, from whom the 
Roman masters, from reign to reign, had obtained their slaves. 
The slaveholders in the Apostles' day, very generally, must have 
been the inheritors only of slaves who were the descendants of the 
original captives ; just as, in 1829, the slaveholders in the United 
States, very generally, were only inheritors of slaves, and had 
no complicity with the African slave traders, who had ceased their 
vocation in 1808. * Were the Roman masters, in the Apostles' 
day, equally criminal with the remorseless conquerors who brought 
their captives to Rome to be sold into bondage? The logic of 
the editor says they were ; but the practice of the Apostles says 
they were not. The Apostles set an example which the editor 
and the churches may well imitate. They recognized the gov- 
ernment of Rome as the ordinance of God for the execution of 
his purposes toward a world sunk in sin ; and they gladly recog- 
nized the Divine hand in the movements which had brought, from 

* Only about 400,000 slaves had been imported between 1G20 and 1808, while 
at the latter date, the whole number of slaves was 893,041. 



92 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the uttermost parts of the earth, the slaves who stood before 
them. Instead of demanding emancipation as a condition of 
preaching the Gospel, the Great Salvation was everywhere of- 
fered to both masters and slaves. 

But not only is the editor's logic at fault here ; his theology 
is equally as defective, and much more pernicious. The doc- 
trines taught by him and his associates, if true, would place the 
church in a deplorable attitude, as it would leave her no sure 
foundation of faith. According to this view, the example of the 
early Christians is not to be our guide ; and the declarations of 
the Apostles are to be no rule of action to us. They could not 
comprehend the Divine mind, as revealed to them, with as much 
certainty as we can ourselves, now that we have a full revelation. 
Here is a masked battery of Satan, erected by the professed dis- 
ciples of Christ, and afterwards used with effect by the infidel 
wing of the abolition army. Look well at this point. If the 
Apostles did not understand the Divine will as to slavery, what 
assurance is there that they comprehended it in relation to any 
revealed duty ? Such doctrines are not in accordance with those 
of the Christian church. Prophecies of future events, for potent 
reasons, were not always understood by their writers ; but moral 
duties were of present obligation, and, when revealed, must have 
been fully comprehended by the Apostles. Any other view is 
infidel in its tendency, and could only have been uttered by or- 
thodox men, under the blinding influence of a fanatical zeal for 
a theory that could not otherwise be sustained. We repeat, if 
the Apostles were not competent judges of the morality or im- 
morality of Roman slavery, they cannot be safe guides on any 
other doctrine or rule of duty : so that, if this be true, there re- 
mains no certainty that any thing they enjoined is binding on the 
conscience, but all is left to human reason, and nothing to the 
word of God, as interpreted by the Apostles. 

The force of these general objections to the grounds of the 
Christian Intelligence^'' s position on the subject of slavery, will be 
strengthened by an examination of the particulars of their posi- 
tion in detail. 1. We are told, that the Apostles might do, " in 
their circumstances," what we may not do " in our circumstances;" 
which amounts to nothing more than an endeavor to protect us 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 93 

against the pernicious influence of their example, if they failed to 
condemn slavery. The contrary of this doctrine, is that which ia 
expressly taught by inspiration : Phil, iii : 17 ; 2 Thes. iii : 9. In 
these passages the authority of apostolic example is directly en- 
forced. 

2. In justification of this position, and in farther carrying of it 
out, we are told, that " there were inspired men who practiced 
polygamy," and if it was " no reflection upon these inspired men " 
that they did not " purge out certain evils," " neither is it any 
reflection upon the Apostles," that they did not, and that they 
permitted slavery to go uncondemned. The Apostles did not 
tolerate "such an evil without testifying against it: " or, if they 
did, it is nothing more nor less than was in correspondence with 
the practice of even inspired men, some of whom were polyga- 
raists. The Apostle Peter spoke reverently of inspired men, and 
called them "holy men of God;" [2 Pet. i: 21,] but as their 
course did not suit the editors, they account for the fact by class- 
ing them with polygamists. 

3 But there is still " a step farther " that may be taken. "If 
the Apostles did not perceive that such slavery as existed among 
us is not sanctioned by the law of God, it does not follow that it 
is sanctioned by that law." The Apostles did not " understand 
fully " what was intended in their own writings. This is indeed 
" a step farther." Slavery is condemned in the Bible, but the in- 
spired penmen themselves were ignorant of the fact. Their course 
in regard to the institution is not to be insisted upon, for, such is 
the possibility, they themselves might have condemned it in their 
own writings, and yet not have known it. If this is true, it is 
easy, in any given case, to get the Apostles out of the Avay, and 
whenever they are troublesome to be wholly rid of them, on the 
simple ground that they did not know their own sayings. In this 
" step farther," there is, moreover, an intimation that there is a 
directing Providence, as well as an inspired word, and this, that 
is apart from the word, is so essential that we " have to study as 
the Providence of God directs." Now as the Apostles " had " to 
study just as all other men, and all men are at liberty to judge 
for themselves as to how Providence directs, it is clear that this 
Providence may direct them, in their own estimation, to views in 



94 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the widest possible degree differing from those of the Apostles, and 
so these ancient worthies be effectually and entirely disposed of. 

Turning from these views of the Apostles, we may next direct 
attention to the estimate placed upon the sacred writings, and 
the notions entertained respecting the first Christians. If they 
were not understood to condemn slavery, in the times of the 
Apostles, it was because they were not all written at the same 
time, and all put in circulation together. Those who had them, 
had them in various portions, and not as a connected whole — 
" the whole system of doctrines and duties," — as we now have 
them. In the first place, there had all along been scriptures 
among the Jews, and these were continually referred to, as when 
our Saviour said : " search the scriptures ; " [John v : 39 ;] and, 
in the second place, there was no such contrariety in the Old and 
New Testament scriptures, as that the rules of morality and of 
holy living, only, were known, as some portions of the New Tes- 
tament had been happily obtained. Paul addressed Timothy [2 
Tim. iii : 15] saying, that " from a child " he had " known the 
Holy Scriptures," and they were such scriptures as "were able 
to make " " wise," and he who had this wisdom would be saved. 
" Long " before " the last Apostle had gone to be ' present with 
the Lord ' " the pen of inspiration had declared [2 Tim. iii : 17] 
that through the then existing scriptures, the man of God ( a 
beautiful epithet,) might be " thoroughly furnished," and that 
" unto all good works." Our editors say, not quite " all ; " we 
have no reason to suppose that they equaled ourselves. So far 
from being "thoroughly furnished," they were not up to our 
standard in " any article of faith or duty which lay ever so little 
out of the Apostle's common track of preaching." Who does not 
see that this representing of the primitive church as without any 
scriptures, except to a meager extent, is contrary to the repre- 
sentation of the Apostles, who maintained that they not only 
possessed them, but that they were " profitable " to the ends for 
which they had been inspired, and urged home upon all the ob- 
ligation to be " thoroughly furnished " by means of them ? Who 
can fail to observe, also, that this position makes the commenda- 
tion of the Bereans, [Acts xvii : 11,] for their study of the Scrip- 
tures, to convey the false impression, that the Church had suit- 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND TOLICY. \jO 

able and sufficient scriptures for their guidance and instruction 
when they had not ? Besides all which, it leaves the Apostles 
to the task of founding the Christian church, without the aid of 
a written literature that was fully available, until after the last 
of their number had gone to be " present with the Lord " — a 
position which could not be maintained, as is further evident, 
because it is contrary to all the analogy of God's providence ; 
which, from the beginning, has made' a written literature to be 
indispensably connected with the establishment of the true relig- 
ion, and to that end first gave language, and then the first rec- 
ords, in language, that were ever known to the human family. 
It is not strange, therefore, that this theory of the editors brings 
them into direct conflict with the declaration of the inspired pen- 
men in such passages as these : [2 Peter i : 9 :] "We have," (not 
there will be, after the last of us has gone to be "present with 
the Lord") "also, a more sure word of prophecy/ (or instruction,) 
to which we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in 
a dark place." Again, [Col. iii: 16,] "Let the word of Christ 
dv.-ell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching," &c. 

This representation of the earlier Christians, by the editors, as 
being without the Scriptures, is with a view to establish two 
points: 1. The clearness of the Scriptures as possessed by us, 
makes the overthrow of slavery to be obligatory upon us, while 
it was not upon them. 2. It takes away all the force of the ex- 
ample of primitive and Apostolic times, as they were in part 
without the Scriptures. "Practices and omissions of duty might 
have existed among them, which ought not to be tolerated in the 
church now." He therefore strenuously objects to "supposing a 
perfection among the Christians of that day " equal to what is 
attained by those of our day. 

The plausibility of this position is attempted to be sustained 
by the farther suggestion of its reasonableness. "No man can — 
an Apostle could not do everything at once." Again, " they 
could not do every thing at once, although they were inspired 
men." It is unreasonable to suppose, according to this view, that 
the primitive church could have been framed so as to afford a 
suitable example. There was too much to be done, and, there- 
fore, if we find anything to condemn which it did not condemn, 



yb PULPIT POLITICS. 

such as slavery, it need be no matter of surprise. Having found 
an easy way to dispose of tlie Apostles, it was easy to dispose 
of that which was built upon their " foundation." [Eph. ii : 20.] 

To what straits will not men be driven by a theory ! The 
character of the Apostles, inspired as teachers in the primitive 
church, and clothed with power of working miracles to establish 
their authority and to confirm their mission ; the fullness, the 
sufficiency, the clearness, and the purity of the inspired Scriptures 
of truth, no less remarkable in the manner of God's preserving 
them, than in the fact of his having given them ; the church that 
was established with "Jesus Christ himself" as "the chief corner 
stone ; " all these are assailed with surmises, and innuendoes, and 
suppositions, and for what ? Why, that seventeen centuries after 
the last of the Apostles had gone to be " present with the Lord," 
it might be possible, through a directing Providence, to make 
room for new light on the subject of slavery ! 

One topic alluded to in the Christian Intelligencer, yet unno- 
ticed by us, remains to be briefly handled, and we have done. It 
is in an article from the pen of an assistant editor, and will be un- 
derstood from the title Avhich is at its head : '•^The Emcmcipaiion 
of the Slaves practicable — their 3Iental and Moral Culture im- 
practicable." * This production was, substantially, an endorse- 
ment of the British theory — that slavery and African evangeli- 
zation are incompatible. The writer, in support of his theory, 
quoted certain laws, in the slave States, which prohibit the educa- 
tion of slaves, but altogether avoided any mention of the success 
that had attended the missionaries in the West Indies, where slav- 
ery then prevailed ; and, with equal care, neglected to notice the 
results of the labors of the Methodists, and others, among the 
slaves in the United States. He theorized entirely, oifering no 
facts to sustain his proposition; or, rather, he avoided any notice 
of existing facts, that would be in opposition to his theory, f 

The course adopted by this writer, in his pertinacious adher- , 
ence to his theory, while facts enough existed around him to dis- 

* Christian Intelligencer, March, 1829, page 65. 

t In justice to the editor, it must be said, that he corrects the writer so far 
as to say, tliat ver^- few of the laws referred to absolutely prohibit the mental 
instruction of the slaves. 



ANTI-SLAVERY DOCTRINES AND POLICY. 97 

prove its co rrectness, reminds us of an anecdote told in relation 
to an emine.it Geologist, who had a fashion of never yielding a 
favorite theory, however much newly developed facts might make 
against him. 

In a certain mountain district, an excitement had long pre- 
vailed in relation to the discovery of copper ores. Several very 
valuable mines had been found and opened. The Geologist was 
attracted to the spot, and, before leaving, received an invitation 
to a locality a few miles distant, where some new excavations, 
in a different class of rocks, had been made. Examining the pile 
of rocks around the mouth of the shaft, he at once pronounced 
their labor as lost — stating, that the slate rocks in which they 
were digging, had long been familiar to him, in various sections 
of the country, and were uniformly barren of all metallic ores. 
The miners listened patiently, until he closed his remarks, and then 
politely invited him to descend the shaft, and see the strata of 
rocks in a side-drift which they had run out from the bottom. 
He readily complied, remarking, that sections of newly cut rocks 
were always interesting to Geologists. Down they went, lamps 
in hand, and, on reaching the spot, a magnificent vein of copper 
ore met his astonished vision ! Fact exploded theory. 

Reader, descend the shaft excavated into the strata of the his- 
tory of negro instruction, by the preceding chapters, and behold 
the West Indies, at the time the writer quoted prepared his argu- 
ment, with over 90,000 Christian converts among the slaves, and 
the United States with about 120,000 ; and, then, never again rely 
upon any theory that is based upon speculation instead of ascer- 
tained facts. 

The arguments on slavery, by which the revolution in church 
discipline was effected, are now before the reader. They contain 
the germs of nearly all the arguments afterward employed by the 
abolitionists, in their fiery assaults upon the system, and upon 
those who sustained it. Even the infidel abolitionist found his 
warrant therein for assailing the Bible, and the semi-infidel for 
demanding "an anti-slavery Constitution, and anti-slavery Bible, 
and an anti-slavery God." * Garrison, too, could point to more 



• Anson Burlingame. 

7 



98 PULPIT POLITICS. 

than one assertion in justification of his declaration, that the 
"United States Constitution is a covenant with death and an 
agreement with hell." * 

Such was the office performed by the writers in the Cliristian 
Intelligencer, for the Church and for the country, f 

The progress of ecclesiastical legislation, from the terms of the 
old platform to the new, may be seen by reference to the chapters 
on that subject. The churches, generally, which had pronounced 
slavery a moral evil, to be speedily remedied, were not able at 
once to carry out the new rule proposed, in its literal meaning, 
because of the opposition of conservative men. Exceptions to the 
rule were made, in some cases, in relation to those of their mem- 
bers who resided in States disallowing emancipation. One denom- 
ination proposed that a moral emancipation might be substituted 
for a legal manumission — the master still holding his legal title 
to the slave, not as property, but as guardian — thus freeing the 
slaveholder from all guilt by this fictitious change of relation. J 
But this rule, in the view of anti-slavery men, would be liable to 
great abuses, as under it every slaveholder might take refuge, 
and the abolition of slavery never be effected. The broader doc- 

* Garrison's Liberator. 

t Note. — It may be doubted, that preaching from the pulpit on the subject of 
slavery, was authorized and required by any ecclesiastical legislation on the 
subject; but such doubts must yield to the facts in the case. The editor, and 
associate editors, of the Christian Intelligencer, belonged to the First Presbytery 
of Ohio, in connection with the Associate Reformed Synod of the West. They 
drew up the Reports, and managed the Slavery Question, it is understood, when 
it was under consideration in that Synod. At the meeting of this Presbytery, 
in September, 1833, the subject of the action of the Synod was brought for- 
ward, considered, reported on, and the following resolution, among others, was 
adopted, as the principles which should thereafter regulate the Presbytery and 
the churches under its care: 

^'■Resolved 1. Ministers should not fail, by the pulpit, and, so far as practica 
ble, by the press, to show, in a faithful and temperate manner, from the Word 
of God, the iniquity and ruinous consequences of this sin. The truth on this 
subject is always important, but it derives very great present importance fi"om 
the prevalence of slavery in our country, and from the interest which the 
subject excites in the public mind." — Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, 
July, 1834. 

t See Chapter VII. 



VIEWS OF CONSERVATIVE MEN. 99 

trine of the Cliristian Intelligencer, and its disciples, the abolition- 
ists, that slaveholding is malum in se — in itself a sin — under all 
circumstances, was, therefore, urged upon public attention with 
great zeal, and no small amount of success. A practical applica- 
tion of this doctrine, by a few of the religious denominations, 
soon resulted in the withdrawal of their ministry, as heretofore 
stated, from the whole of the slave States — thus leaving both 
master and slave in total destitution of the ordinances of religion.* 

Section III. — How the Abolitionists were met by argu- 
ments AGAINST their BiBLE THEORIES. 

We have said, that, in the outset of the abolition movement, 
the conservative element predominated in some of the churches, 
so as to hold in check the fanatical spirit every where manifesting 
itself. This was so fully the case, in the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, that the subject of slavery was never agitated in its 
councils, so as to lead to legislation on the subject. The same 
thing is true of the Christian Church, (otherwise called Camp- 
bellites.) 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as the General 
Assembly Presbyterians, both had a long struggle on this ques- 
tion. The discussions in the former body, in attempting to keep 
the Church from taking ultra ground, were very ably conducted ; 
and the Church was saved from the evils of abolitionism for many 
years. In this controversy, their ablest men were engaged ; and 
the conclusions at which they arrived, were very different, indeed, 
from those of the writers in the Cliristian Intelligencer. Rev. 
Dr. Bangs, in 1834, thus wrote: 

" At the time he (Christ) made his appearance in our world, slavery 
existed all over the Roman Empire, not excepting even the highly 
favored land of Judea, to such an extent that it has been estimated 

* A striking example of this kind is recorded by the British Friend, of 1854, 
as having occurred in Virginia. The agitation of the subject of slavery began 
among the Society of Friends, at an early day, in the district to which it 
refers. "There were, at the time," says the Friend, "seven meetings of Friends 
in that part of Virginia, but they have all long since been deserted, and the 
lountry literally desolated." 



100 PULPIT POLITICS. 

that about one-half of the population of that vast empire were in a 

state of civil bondage When Jesus Christ sent out hia 

Apostles to preach, did he give them a command to denounce those 
masters because they held slaves ? and to tell them that unless they 
let those oppressed go free, they could not repent and enter the king- 
dom of heaven? Nothing of this. We do not recollect a single in- 
stance of his having uttered a word on this subject." * 

Bishops Emery and Hedding, in an address of September, 
1835, say, that " within the Koman Empire, slaves were both 
more numerous, and their legalized condition worse, than the 
legalized condition of the same class in any portion of our own 
country." 

Rev. Dr. Fisk, and others, in the " Counter Appeal," say, that 
" Christianity spread in a land where slavery existed as cruel and 
licentious as ever existed in this country." And in referring to 
Ephesians vi: 5-9, they assert, that "it places it beyond debate 
or a doubt, that the Apostle did permit slaveholders in the Chris- 
tian Church." And, again, in commenting on Colossians iii: 22, 
they say : 

" We say, then, that this text proves to a demonstration , that, in the 
primitive Christian Church at Colosse, under the Apostolic eye, and 
with the Apostolic sanction, the relation of master and slave was per- 
mitted to subsist. The slave is addressed as continuing a slave, the 
master as permanently a master ; the former is exhorted to obedience, 
the latter to justice and equity in the exercise of his authority. Who 
can assert, in the face of this text, that no slave-master is ' truly 
awakened,' nor can be endured in a Christian Church ? " 

Rev. Dr. Bond, thus wrote : 

" Slaveholding itself is no where in terms forbidden in Scripture, 
though the practice was general in the time of our Lord and his 
Apostles ; yet there is no express prohibition to Christians to hold 
elaves, though there are express exhortations to slaves to obey their 
masters, and to make this a matter of conscience." f 



''Christian Advocate and Journal, December 5, 1834. 

t As quoted by Rev. Dr. Elliott, iu Ms "Great Secession " page 260. 



VIEWS OF CONSERVATIVE MEN. 101 

Professor Stuart, of Andover, having been addressed on the 
uihject by Rev. Dr. FiSK, who asked for historical information, 
thus wrote : 

" Every one knows, who is acquainted with Greek and Latin antiqui- 
ties, that sLavery among heathen nations has ever been more unqualified, 
and at looser ends, than among Christian nations. Slaves were prop- 
erty in Greece and Rome. That decides all question about their 
relation. Their treatment depended, as it does now, on the temper of 
their masters. The power of the master over the slave was, for a long 
time, that of life and death. Horrible cruelties, at length, mitigated 
it. In the Apostles' day, it was, at least, as great as among us." 

"1 Tim. vi : 2, expresses the sentiment that slaves who are 

Christians, and have Christian masters, are not, on that account, and 
because as Christians they are brethren, to forego the reverence due to 
them as masters. That is, the relation of master and slave is not, as a 
matter of course, abrogated between all Christians. Nay, servants 
should, in such case, a fortiori, do their duty cheerfully. This senti- 
ment lies on the very face of the verse." "The precepts of 

the New Testament respecting the demeanor of slaves, and of their 
masters, beyond all question recognize the existence of slavery. The 
masters are believing masters, so that a precept to them how they are 
to behave as masters, recognizes that the relation may still exist, salva 
fide et salva ecclesia — without violating the Christian faith of the 
Church. Otherwise Paul had nothing to do but to cut the bond 
asunder at once. He could not lawfully and properly temporize with 
a malum in se — that is, itself a sin. If any one doubts, let him take 
the case of Paul's sending Onesimus [ct slave'] back to Philemon [/i/s 
master,] with apology for his running away, and sending him back to 
be his servant for life. The relation did exist, may exist. The abuse 
of it is the essential, fundamental wrong." * 

Rev. Dr. Clarke, (Comment. 1 Tim. vi : 1,) says : 

" The word SodXoc (' servants,') here means slaves converted to the 
Christian faith ; and the ^nyofr, or yoke, is the state of slavery." 

* These quotations, as well as the others in reference to the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, are taken from the pamphlet of Rev. Nathan Scarlet, of the 
Kansas Conference. 



102 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Again, he says, (Tit. ii : 9) : 

" The Apostle refers to those who were slaves, the proj^erfi/ of their 
masters." 

Again, (Col. iv : 1,) he says : 

" The condition of slaves among the Greeks and Romans was 
wretched in the extreme ; they could appeal to no law ; and they 
could neither expect justice nor equity." 

Again, (Comment. 1 Tim. vi : 3) : 

" With political questions, or questions relative to private rights, our 
Lord scarcely ever meddled ; he taught all men to love one another ; to 
respect each other's rights ; to submit to each other ; to show all 
fidelity ; to be obedient, humble, and meek ; and to know that his 
kingdom was not of this world." 

Again, (Comment. 1 Cor. vii : 24) : 

" It is very likely that some of the slaves at Corinth, who had been 
converted to Christianity, had been led to think that their Christian 
privileges absolved them from the necessity of continuing slaves, or, at 
least, brought them on a level with their Christian masters. A spirit 
of this kind might have soon led to confusion and insubordination, and 
brought scandals into the Church. It was, therefore, a very proper 
subject for the Apostle 1*0 interfere in; and to his authority the per- 
sons concerned would doubtless respectfully bow." 

Again, (on 1 Cor. vii : — end of the chapter) : 

" The conversion which the Scripture requires, though it makes a 
most essential change in our souls in reference to God, and in our worJes 
in reference both to God and man, makes none in our civil state; even 
if a man is called, i. c, converted, in a state of slavery, he does not 
gain his manumission in consequence of his conversion ; he stands in 
the same relation both to the state and to his fellows that he stood in 
before; and is not to assume any civil rights or privileges in conse- 
quence of the conversion of his soul to God. The Apostle decides 
the matter in this chapter, and orders that every man should abide in 
the callins wherein he is called.' 



VIEWS OF CONSERVATIVE MEN. 103 

Again, (on Phil. — end of tlie chapter,) he says : 

" Christianity makes no change in men's civil affairs ; even a slave 
did not become a freeman by Christian baptism." 

And, again, in remarking on another passage, he says : 

" The Apostle, therefore, informs the proprietors of these slaves 
that they should act toward them both according to Justice and equity ; 
for God, their Master, required this of them, and would at last call 
them to account for their conduct in this respect." 

Rev. Dr. FiSK, in the " Counter Appeal," says : 

" 'Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to 
the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as unto Christ; 
not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing 
the will of Grod from the heart ; with good-will doing service, as to 
the Lord, and not to men ; knowing that whatsoever good thing any 
man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond 
or free. And, ye masters, do the same thing unto them, forbearing 
threatening ; knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; neither is 
there respect to persons with him.' On this text we remark : 1. It 
places beyond debate or doubt, that the Apostle did permit slaveholders 
in the Christian Church. There were already such in the Church of 
Ephesus, or he would not have addressed them by the term master, as 
a legitimate and continuous title ; without one word of emancipation, 
he directly enjoins upon them the mild exercise of that authority, 
'forbearing threatening.' 2. He exhibits the difference between slave- 
holding in the hands of a Christian master, and a tyrannical and heathen 
master. While the former might exercise the proper duties of the 
station, the latter would, no doubt, be guilty of all the cruelties and 
ibominations of which Greek and Koman slavery was preeminently 
/ull. Yet the enormity of its abuses did not, in his opinion, require 
the immediate abolition of the relation itself. 3. The New Testament, 
here and elsewhere, enjoins obedience upon the slave as an obligation 
due to a present rightful authority. They are to be 'obedient,' not 
deceitfully, but with 'singleness of heart,' and 'to please them in all 
things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good 
fidelity.' — Titus ii : 9. It is perfectly ludicrous to pretend that this 
Injunction is parallel with the command to be passive under inflictions 
for righteousness' sake. It is perfectly irrelevant for our brethren to 



104 PULPIT POLITICS. 

challenge any man in the world to show how, by our rules of inter- 
pretation, the command to pray for persecutors does not justify per- 
secution. To say nothing of the fact that we find no persecutors 
holding an acknowledged standing in the primitive Christian Church; 
that we find no injunctions to persecutors to discharge their duties 
with moderation, 'forbearing threatening;' that we find no successive 
addresses to Christians persecuted, and Christian persecutors, mutually 
to perform toward each other the correlative duties of those respective 
characters. ' We challenge any man in the world to show,' if the case 
of the slave and the persecuted Christian be parallel, how the former 
is not justified in 'gainsaying,' in refuting, in 'answering again,' and 
in fleeing from one city to another. What command obliged the per- 
secuted Christian to please his persecutor 'in all things,' with 'single- 
ness of heart,' and 'with all good fidelity?' These are exhortations 
that sound like injunctions to perform duties of at least a present 
rightful relation. If that relation be invariably sinful, how, indeed, 
can any slave be justified in perpetuating the oppressive system upon 
others by submission to it himself? How could the Apostle be justi- 
fied in thus obliging them to aid in that oppression by even forbidding 
a breach of 'fidelity?' and how are abolitionists justified — who repel 
the charge of preaching insubordination or escape — in conniving, by 
their silence, at the slave's ignorance of his rights, and thus combin- 
ing with their oppressors in perpetuating the yoke ? " 

Rev. Dr. Elliott, in his "Great Secession," page 818, says: 

"And those few churches in recent times, which have made or at- 
tempted to make absolute non-slaveholding a term of membership, 
have done little or nothing religiously to benefit slave or master ; or 
they have shut themselves out entirely from the field of labor. The 
reason is, they have adopted a mere arbitrary theory in the place of 
the Gospel panacea, of enlightenment, regeneration, and sanctification, 
and therefore could not succeed. This is history, and can not be met 
except by dogmatism and self-sufl&cicncy, and with some mixture of 
fanaticism and narrow sectarianism." 

The Board of Bishops, in their address, in 1840, say : 

" We are fully persuaded tha't, as a body of Christian ministers, we 
shall accomplish the greatest good by directing our individual and 
united efforts, in the spirit o/" the first teachers of Christianity, to 



VIEWS OF CONSERVATIVE MEN. 105 

bring both master and servant under the sanctifying influence of the 
principles of that Gospel which teaches the duties of every relation, 
and enforces the faithful discharge of them by the strongest conceiva- 
ble motives. Do we aim at the amelioration of the condition of the 
slave? How can we so effectually accomplish this in our calling a3 
ministers of the Gospel of Christ, as hy employing our whole influence 
to bring both him and his master to a saving knowledge of the grace 
of God, and to a practical observance of those relative duties so clear- 
ly prescribed in the writings of the inspired Apostles. Permit us to 
add, that, although we enter not into the political contentions of the 
day, neither interfere with civil legislation, nor with the administra- 
tion of the laws, we can not but feel a deep interest in whatever affects 
the peace, prosperity, and happiness of our beloved country. The 
Union of these States, the perpetuity of the bonds of our National 
Confederation, the reciprocal confidence of the different members of 
the great civil compact — in a word, the well-being of the community 
of which we are members, should never cease to lay near our hearts, 
and for v»diich we should offer up our sincere and most ardent prayers 
to the Almighty Ruler of the Universe. But can we, as ministers of 
the Gospel, and servants of a Master 'whose kingdom is not of this 
world,' promote these important objects in any way so truly and per- 
manently, as by pursuing the course just pointed out? Can we, at 
this eventful crisis, render a better service to our country than by 
laying aside all interference loith relations aritliorizecl and established 
by the civil laws, and applying ourselves wholly and faithfully to what 
specially appertains to our 'high and holy calling;' to teach and 
enforce the moral obligations of the Gospel, in application to all the 
duties growing out of the different relations in society." 

It is not necessary to trcace these discussions any farther. The 
controversy extended itself to all the religious denominations, but, 
as before stated, a few of them managed to prevent its introduc- 
tion into their legislative councils. The debates were often of the 
most exciting character, and the press, availing itself of its rights 
in a free country, gave an interest to their columns by reporting 
the speeches. The reproach which this was calculated to bring 
upon a fanatical ministry soon became obvious, and, in certain 
quarters, the offending editors were rebuked with severity. We 
find the following in the Christian Intelligencer ^ for Pebruary, 
1836: 



106 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" RcUgioiis Papers. — We are, moreover, of opinion that, however 
valuable and popular the N^ew York Observer may be, it does more 
mischief than all our religious newspapers put together; and the 
editors are acquiring popularity at a fearful expense to our church 
and the reputation of her ministry. To attend our judicatories 
in times of excitement, and publish all the angry words and half- 
inch speeches, which good men utter, may gratify a morbid cu- 
riosity ; but exposes our church and her ministry, in the very worst 
attitude in which they can be placed before the public eye. Their 
virtue and devoted and active piety are thrown in the shade, and 
the moment of excitement is seized to draw their likeness and place 
it in bold relief before a censorious and seofl&ng world." — Pitts- 
burgh Christian Herald.^ 

Upon this the editor of the Intelligencer thus remarks : 

" This is a great truth. Mr. Baird deserves the thanks of the 
Christian community for daring to utter it, Such is the desire of 
many editors of ' religious papers ' to swell their subscription list, 
that they will gratify this ' morbid curiosity,' and furnish ' views ' to 
suit all kinds of readers at all hazards ; and, unless it is checked, 
the time must soon come, when no church will be permitted to keep 
its business in its own hands. Not a measure will be taken up, or 
even mentioned in an ecclesiastical judicatory, but it will be reported 
in the newspapers, and placed before the public mind in some false 
attitude — the prejudices of some will be excited, and the passions 
of others inflamed, so as entirely to preclude the possibility of cool 
and rational reflection." 

This shrinking from the scrutiny of the public press, comes 
"with an ill-grace from parties who were clamorous for free dis- 
cussion : and, the more especially is it so, when the whole of the 
church enactments on slavery were put to vote, and carried, 
under the highest state of excitement. But, with them, free dis- 
cussion must have been like submission to church authority by 
William Tennent, and his fellow Protesters, in 1741, when re- 

* The complaint of the editor of the Herald may have had reference to the 
trial of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., for heresy, which had taken place some 
time before the date of the above remarks, and which had been reported for 
the New York Observer, but it will apply with equal force to the slavery 
controversy, then rife in the churches. 

( 



VIEWS OF CONSERVATIVE MEN. 107 

quired to submit to the decisions of the Presbyterian Synod. In 
effect they asserted : " If we were the majority, it would be bind- 
ing on you to obey the rules ; but, seeing you sightless and 
Christless ones are in the majority, the rules are null, and, like 
yourselves, fit only to be despised." * 

It would be easy to make a volume of extracts, from abolition 
documents and speeches, of the period between 1830 and 1840, 
showing the vehement spirit animating those who conducted the 
crusade against slavery, and the fanatical spirit by which they 
were animated; but we shall allow Rev. Dr. Channing to draw 
their portrait. In 183G, in one of his worls, he says: 

"The abolitionists have done wrong, I beIie^e; nor is their wrong 
to be winked at because done fanatically or with good intentions ; for 
how much mischief may be wrought with good designs ! They have 
fallen into the common error of enthusiasts, that of exaggerating 
their object, of feeling as if no evil existed but that which they op- 
posed, and as if no guilt could be compared with that of countenanc- 
ing and upholding it. The tone of their newspapers, so far as I have 
seen them, has often been fierce and abusive. They have sent forth 
orators, some of them transported with fiery zeal, to sound the alarm 
against slavery through the land, to gather together young and old, 
pupils from schools, females hardly arrived at the years of discretion, 
the ignorant, the excitable, the impetuous, and to organize these into 
associations for the battle against ojjpression. Very unhappily they 
preached their doctrine to the colored people, and collected them into 
societies. To this mixed and excitable multitude, minute heart- 
rending descriptions of slavery were given in piercing tones of pas- 
sion ; and slaveholders were held up as monsters of cruelty and crime. 
The abolitionist, indeed, proposed to convert slaveholders; and for 
this end he approached them with vituperation and exhausted on 
them the vocabulary of abuse. And he has reaped as he sowed." 

The tendencies of the abolition movement, did not escape the 
attention of discerning men. It was foreseen, and predicted, that 
its ultimate results would be the dissolution of the Union, as a 
necessary consequence of the alienation of feeling which it en- 
gendered between the North and the South. Two or three years 

* Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church in America, p. 1G4. 



108 PULPIT POLITICS. 

after Dr. Channing uttered his views of aibolition, the Princeton 
Review made this prophetic declaration : 

" The opiuion that slaveholding is itself a crime must operate to 
produce the disunion of the States and the division of all ecclesias- 
tical societies in the country. Just so far as this opinion operates 
it will lead those who entertain it to submit to any sacrifices to carry 
it out, and give it effect. We shall become two nations in feeling, 
which must soon render us two nations in fact." 

To check the tendencies to this result, many of the most pious 
and intelligent men in the church, as well as in the state, set 
their faces, as steel, against the abolition movement. The same 
year that Dr. Channing expressed his opinion of the abolitionists, 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, hold- 
ing its session in Cincinnati, passed a series of resolutions in 
reprobation of abolitionism, by an overwhelming majority. * 

But we must leave this part of our field of discussion, to pre- 
sent a class of facts which are indispensable to a proper under- 
standing of the question of the best mode of promoting African 
Evangelization. We shall, however, resume the discussion, in 
another chapter, of the abolition movements, in their connection 
with the ecclesiastical legislation at the North, so as to show that 
they were the natural outgrowth of that legislation. 

Section IV. — Inquiries into the difference in the degrees 
OF success attending the attempts to Evangelize the African 
Race throughout the World. 

Among an unthinking people, writers and orators may frame 
acceptable theories, based only on the speculations of their own 
imaginations ; but he who would secure attention from an intel- 
ligent public, must found his theories upon facts. In no field of 
investigation is an appeal to facts so imperiously demanded, at 
this moment, as in that of the slavery question. False theories 
on the subject have done their fatal Avork upon our country. A 
writer has recently observed, that " It is in the arena of politics 



* See Chapter VIII., session of 1836. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 109 

that every moral and theological short-coming reaches maturity, 
and meets its final penalty." This has been strikingly true in 
reference to the United States. The pulpit began the crusade 
against slavery, and the press brought it to maturity upon the 
arena of party politics : the nation is now meeting the penalty. * 

But I am met with the assertion, that certain evils are so in- 
imical to the interests of humanity, that an exemption from them 
is cheaply purchased by war. This may all be true ; but, then, 
if the evils complained of cannot be remedied by war, a terrible 
responsibility rests upon those who provoke it. How is it in 
the present case? The evil complained of, is the degradation 
of the negro, under slavery, in the Southern States. His moral 
elevation, it is contended, can be effected only by emancipation, 
as a means of making him accessible to the Gospel. This has 
been the burden of the cry of the abolitionists from the begin- 
ning. It is well, therefore, to ascertain whether the moral ele- 
vation of the negro will necessarily follow emancipation. This 
cannot be determined by theorizing about the natural equality 
of men, but only by an examination of the facts connected with 
the history of the African race. And if it should appear, under 
all the varied circumstances in which the Providence of God has 
placed the colored man, that his condition in the United States, 
under slavery, has been the most favorable to his evangelization, 
then there can be no longer any reason for Christian men to 
wage war upon the system, so as to endanger the peace of the 
country. 

In prosecuting this inquiry, attention is asked to the principal 

* Near the close of 18G8, in the midst of tlie abolition excitement, the Ver- 
moiit Chronicle, in commenting upon Guizot's History of Civilization, andap- 
plying some of the teachings of history to the condition of slavery in the Uni- 
ted States, made the following sensible remark: 

"Whatever of religious influence there is, therefore, among slaveholders and 
slaves, ought to be fervently rejoiced in, and sedulously cherished. To de- 
nounce all religious effort in slaveholding countries, is not only unchristian 
and injurious conduct toward the population of those countries, but treason 
against religion itself. The history of the progress of liberty, under any other 
than religious auspices, is not such, surely, as to encourage Christian men in 
relying on any other than Christian principles for "breaking every yoke." 



110 PULPIT POLITICS. 

facts connected with the various Christian missions among the 
Africans throughout the world, whether in bondage or in freedom : 

1. The obstacles to African Evangelization in South Africa. 

In this investigation, we must avail ourselves of former labors,^ 
to some extent ; and before commencing the missionary history 
of South Africa, a brief reference must be had to its civil history . 

The Dutch took possession of the Cape in 1650, and this occupancy 
was followed by an extensive emigration of that people to Cape Town 
and its vicinity. The encroachments of the emigrants upon the Hot- 
tentots, soon gave rise to wars, which resulted in the enslavement of 
this feeble race. The English captured Cape Town in 1795, ceded 
it back in 1801, retook it in 1808, and still hold it in possession. 

The climate of South Africa being favorable to the health of Eu« 
ropeans, an English emigration to the Cape commenced soon after it 
became a British province. This led to further encroachments upon 
the native tribes, and to much disaffection upon the part of the 
Dutch, who were designated by the term Boers, f They remained in 
the Colony, however, until 1834, when the emancipation act of the 
British Parliament, set the Hottentots free. This so enraged the 
Boers, that they emigrated in large bodies beyond the limits of Cape 
Colony. In seeking new homes, they came in contact with the Zulus, 
as already stated, and aided in the subjugation of that powerful peo- 
ple. Driven by the English from the Zulu country, the Boers passed 
on to the north-west, far into the interior, where we shall soon hear 
from them again. 

The English, in extending their settlements to the north-east of 
Cape Town, soon came into collision with the Caffres ; who, being a 
powerful and warlike race, made a vigorous resistance to their ad- 
vances. The Caffres stole the cattle of the whites, and the whites 
retaliated on the Caffres. These depredations often resulted in wars, 
each of which gave the English government a pretext to add a portion 
of the Caffre territory to its own. As war followed on war, the Caffres 
improved in the art, acquired something of the skill of their enemies, 
and learned the use of European weapons. Thus every Caffre war 
became more formidable, requiring more troops, costing more money, 
and, of course, demanding more territory. In consequence of these 

* See " Ethiopia," for full particulars, t The German term for farmers. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. Ill 

varicus annexations from the Caffres, Zulus, and others, the English 
possessions in South Africa now cover a space of 282,000 square 
miles; 105,000 of which have been added since 1847. 

The Missionary History of South Africa, though of great interest, 
must also he very brief. 

A Moravian mission, begun in 1736, among the Hottentots, was 
broken up at the end of six years, by the Dutch authorities, and its 
renewal prevented for 49 years. Having been resumed in 1792, it 
was again interrupted in 1795, but soon afterward restored under 
British authority. Here, the hostility of the Dutch government to 
Christian Missions excluded the Gospel from South Africa during a 
period of half a century. 

A mission to the Caffres, begun in 1799, by Dr. Vanderkemp, was 
abandoned in a year, on account of the jealousies of that people to- 
ward the whites, and their plots to take his life. The other missions, 
of various denominations, begun from time to time, in South Africa, 
have also been interrupted and retarded by the wars of the natives 
with each other, and more especially with the whites. 

The pecuniary loss to the English, by the war of 1835, was 
11,200,000 ; and by that of 1846-7, $3,425,000. This, however, 
was a matter of little importance, compared with the moral bearings 
of these conflicts. The missions suflered more or less in all the wars, 
either by interruptions of their labors, or in having their people 
pressed into the army. In that of 1846-7, the London Society had 
its four stations in the Caffre country entirely ruined, and its mis- 
sionaries and people were compelled to seek refuge in the Colony. 

But the most disastrous of all these conflicts, and that which has 
cast the deepest gloom over the South African Missions, was the 
Caffre war of 1851-2-3. These missions, with the exception of that 
to the Zulus, were under the care of ten missionary societies, all of 
which were European. They had recovered from the shocks of the 
former wars, and were in an encouraging state, when, in December, 
1850, the Cafi're war broke out. In consequence of that war, many 
of the missions were reduced to a most deplorable condition ; afi"ord- 
ing a sad commentary on the doctrine that the white and black races, 
in the present moral condition of the world, can dwell together in 
harmony. 

The missions of the Scotch Free Church were in the very seat of 
war, the buildings of two of them destroyed, and the missionaries 
forced to flee for their lives ; while the third was only saved by being 
fortified. 



112 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The Berlin Missionary Society had its missionaries driven from two 
of its stations, during the progress of the war. 

The Mission of the United Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, which 
consisted of three stations, was all involved in ruin. The war laid 
waste the mission stations, scattered the missionaries and converts, 
suspended entirely the work of instruction, and did an amount of 
evil which can scarcely be exaggerated. The Report for 1853 de- 
clared that the mission could not be resumed on its old basis, as the 
Caffres around their stations were to be driven away ; and though 
the native converts, numbering 100, might be collected at one of the 
stations, it was deemed better that a delegation visit South Africa, 
and report to the Board a plan of future operations. 

The London Missionary Society also suffered greatly, and some of 
their missionaries were stript of every thing they possessed. The 
Report for 1853, says : " This deadly conflict has at length termi- 
nated, and terminated, as might have been foreseen, by the triumph 
of British arms. The principal Caffre chiefs, with their people, have 
been driven out of their country ; and their lands have been allotted 
to British soldiers and colonists. And on the widely extended fron- 
tier, there will be established military posts, from which the troops 
and the settlers are to guard the colony against the return of the 
exiled natives." 

Such, indeed, was the hostility of the whites toward the mi.-^sion- 
aries themselves, at one of the Churches in the white settlements, 
that bullets were not unfrequently dropped into the collection plates.-J^ 

Both 3Ioravlan and Wesleyan Missions have been destroyed. In 
one instance, 250 Hottentots perished by the hands of English sol- 
diers, in the same Church where they had listened to the word of 
God from the Moravian missionaries ; not because they were enemies, 
but in an attempt to disarm a peaceful population. Such were the 
cruelties incident to this war ! 

The Paris Missionary Society had thirteen stations in South Africa. 
Its Report, for 1853, complained of the interruptions and injuries 
which its missions had suffered, in consequence of the military com- 
motions which had prevailed in the fields occupied by its mission- 
aries. In alluding to the obstacles to the Gospel which every where 
existed, Dr. Grandpicrrc, the Director of the Society, said : " But 
how are these obstacles multiplied, when the missionary is obliged 
to encounter, in the lives of nominal Christians, that which gives the 



♦ Missionary Mag. and Chron., Oct., 1853. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 113 

lie to liis teachings. Irritated by the measures which are employed 
against them, may not the aborigines rightfully say to the whites, 
with more truth than ever, ' You call yourself the children of the 
Grod of peace ; and yet you make war upon us. You teach justice ; 
but you are guilty of injustice. You preach the love of God; and 
you take away our liberty and our property.' " 

One of the Scotch Societies, near the close of the Caifre war, when 
summing up the effects it had produced, draws this melancholy pic- 
ture : 

" All missionai'y operations have been suspended ; the converts are 
either scattered or compelled, by their hostile countrymen, to take 
part in the revolt; the missionaries have been obliged to leave the 
scenes of their benevolent labors; hostile feelings have been excited 
between the black and white races, which it will require a long pe- 
riod to soothe down ; and the prospects of evangelizing Caffreland have 
been rendered dark and distant." 



We turn now to another class of missions, and, for the brief 
synopsis presented, are indebted to the Blisdonary 3Iagaz{ne, the 
organ of the American Baptist Missionary Union, which 
copies from the Londoti Missionary Chronicle — the paragraphs 
descriptive of the Bushmen being from the London Quarterly 
Review. 

The first mission of the London Missionary Society, in South 
Africa, was begun in 1799, among the Bushmen. The station 
selected was 400 miles from Cape Town, on the Zak River. This 
station was abandoned in 1805, owing to the quarrels of the 
native tribes, the difficulty of obtaining the means of subsistence, 
&c. The next effort among the Bushmen was made in 1814, at 
Thornberg, and two years afterward, a removal effected to a point 
nearer the Great Orange River, which they called Hepzibah. In 
this place some success followed their efforts; but, through the 
influence of the Boers, the British authorities peremptorily or- 
dered the missionaries within the colony, on the plea that " these 
institutions were detrimental to the colony." Though the Society 
has never since been able to form a mission to the Bushmen, 
nevertheless, in connection with the Griquas, the Hottentots at 
Kat River, and among the Namaquas and the Bechuanas, out 
stations have been formed for Bushmen, among whom some deeply 
8 



114 PULPIT POLITICS. 

affecting instances of spiritual good have been Tvitnessed. * The 
following account of the Bushmen will interest the reader. It is 
from a late number of the London Quarterly Review : 

"On the banks and in the valleys of the Snowberg or Snowy 
Mountains, which form the northern boundary of the Cape, human- 
ity is found in the very lowest state of degradation in which it has 
ever been exhibited. The Bosjesmans, or Bushmen, two or three 
specimens of which race were brought to this country a few years ago, 
present an exaggeration even of the hideous form which character- 
izes the Hottentot. Hunger, and cold, and nakedness, and every 
description of privation and distress, have so dwarfed their forms and 
depraved their minds, that they present a spectacle painful to Uook 
upon. The stature. of these pigmy inhabitants of the desert rarely 
exceeds four feet, or four feet two inches. Thieves by profession, 
cruel and treacherous, without a fixed habitation, without society, 
without any sort of common interest or government, and living only 
from day to day. and from hand to mouth, they were objects of 
loathing to neighboring tribes, even before Europeans had approached 
their country. The more civilized of the Hottentots and Cafires 
waged a deadly war against them ; and the sight of one of these 
diminutive savages is said to rouse the passions of that race to an 
unaccountable fury. Many years since, a Caffre saw in the Govern- 
ment House at Cape Town, among the other domestics, a Bushman 
eleven years of age. With the impulse of a beast of prey he darted 
upon him, and transfixed him with his aggesai. 

•• The little intelligence which the Bushmen possess is displayed 
chiefly in robbery and the chase. Rivaling the antelope in fleetness 
and the monkey in agility, they accompany their wild, half-famished, 
savage dogs until they come within bowshot of their game, or run 
down the objects of their pursuit. Arrayed generally with a bow, a 
quiver full of arrows, a hat and a belt, leather sandals, a sheep's 
fleece, a gourd, or the shell of an ostrich's egg, to carry water, these 
puny creatures wander over their parched and desolate plains, sup- 
ported by a food which, unless when occasionally varied by the lux- 
uries of the chase, consists entirely of roots, berries, ant-eggs, grass- 
hoppers, mice, toads, lizards, and snakes. They smear the arrows 
which they use for hunting, and in war, with a poison which, extracted 
from a bulb, and mingled with a venom drawn from the jaws of the 

» Missionary Magazine, Jan., 1861 — copied from London Miss. Chron. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 115 

yellow serpent, forms a compound of tlie most noxious character, for 
no creature was ever pierced by a dart prepared with this deadly virus, 
and lived. They have another poison more fearful in its effects, 
which is extracted from a caterpillar. The agony produced by it, 
Dr. Livingstone says, is so intense, that the person wounded cuts him- 
self with knives, and flies from human habitation a raving maniac. 
The effect upon the lion is equally terrible. He is heard moaning in 
distress, becomes furious, and bites trees and the ground in his rage. 
" They are said to be totally void of natural afiection ; ' and there 
are instances,' adds a missionary, (Mr. Kicherer) who lived for some 
time in the neighborhood, ' of parents throwing their tender offspring 
to the hungry lion who stood roaring before their cavern, refusing to 
depart until some peace-offering was made to him. They shun the 
face of strangers, concealing themselves amongst the rocks and bushes, 
and even throwing themselves over precipices rather than fall into the 
hands of their enemies. But they have been known, when escape 
has been cut off, to fight with the most determined resolution. E.e- 
ligion they have none. They regard the thunder as the voice of an 
angry demon, and they reply to it with curses and imprecations. 
Their language is inarticulate to all but themselves ; and there appears 
to be scarcely even a possibility of either civilizing or converting them. 
In the north-east of Natal, where the Bushmen appear in their lowest 
type, they reside in holes of the earth scraped out with their nails, or 
rather with their claws. ' They will not receive kindness,' says a close 
observer of their character ; ' or if they do, they only make a return 
of treachery, robbery, and murder. No presents of cattle or corn, no 
inducements to locate and settle, can prevail upon them to relinquish 
their wild life, or to make any approach toward civilization.' The 
only satisfactory thought connected with them is the belief of their 
gradual extinction. They exist, in the meantime, an awful proof of 
the degradation to which humanity, in its gradual deterioration, can fall, 
and an instance of physical and moral degeneracy probably unparal- 
leled in the world." 

How are the principles of the Declaration of Independence to 
be applied to this people ? Suppose they were in the United 
States, would the abolitionist claim for the Bushmen a political 
equality Avith the intelligent white man 



, ?>K 



* The Lowest Type of Humanity. — The following extract is from an Article 
on "Barbarism and Civilization, in the Atlantic Monthly, 1861: 



116 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Intimately connected witli the mission to the Bushmen, was 
that to the Namaquas and Corannas, living north and west of 
Cape Colony, and chiefly beyond the Orange River. It was, like 
that to the Bushmen, attended with great privation and extreme 
peril, and, by the Divine favor, with instances of marvelous suc- 
cess. " It is difficult to imagine the arid, desolate, barren, rocky 
surface, which this part of Africa presents. The migratory tribes 
that removed from fountain to fountain to find grass for their 
cattle were as ignorant and spiritually necessitous as the Bush- 
men." In 1805 they set out for the mission, and in 1807 bap- 
tized their first converts. In 1810 the missionaries fled to the 
colony to escape from the sword of Africaner, a noted robber 
chief, who destroyed the mission, reducing the buildings to ashes 
after having secured the plunder. In 1812 the mission was re- 
newed at a point south of the Orange Rivei-. Africaner, having 
had the missionaries commended to his care, welcomed one of 
them to his village, and afterwards became, himself, a truly con- 
verted man. In 1818 Mr. Moffatt reached Africaner's kraal, and, 
under his instructions, the former man of blood became a preachei 
of righteousness. He died in 1823, cheered to his latest hours 
by the hopes of the Gospel of Christ. In 1830 the Gospels, 
which had been translated into the Namaqua tongue, were printed 
and welcomed by the people. * 

The mission among the Griquas was commenced in 1801. 
" This people were numerous, at this time, and comparatively rich 
in cattle, more intelligent, and by the possession of fire-arms, 

"On the island of Borneo there has been found a certain race of wild crea- 
tures, of which kindred varieties have been discovered in the Philippine 
Islands, in Terra del Fuego, and in South Africa. They walk, usually, almost 
erect, on two legs, and, in that attitude, measure about four feet in hight; they 
arc dark, wrinkled, and liairy; they construct no habitations, form no families, 
scarcely associate together; sleep in caves or trees; feed on snakes and vermin, 
on ant-eggs, on mice, and on each other; they cannot be tamed nor forced to 
any labor; and are hunted and shot among the trees like the great gorillas, of 
which they arc a stunted copy. When they are captured alive, one finds to his 
surprise that their uncouth jabbering sounds like articulate language; they 
turn up a human face to gaze at their captor, and females show instincts of 
modesty; and, in fine, these wretched beings are men." 

* Missionary Magazine, January, 1861; taken from London Missionary 
Chronicle. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 117 

more powerful than the tribes among them ; but in morals and 
social condition, little, if at all, superior to the Bushmen. Thej 
were indolent and improvident, wandering from place to place, as 
they found pasturage for their herds. The missionaries followed 
their movements, and endured all the discomfort and privation of 
such a mode of life, in order to induce them to receive their mes- 
sage." Finally, a part of the Griquas were induced to settle 
down to agriculture, under the care of one of the missionaries, 
while the other missionary accompanied those who went with the 
cattle. This was the commencement of a settled habitation among 
them. The headstrong perverseness of the people, the want of 
suitable and sufficient food, the exposure to attacks from bands 
of marauding Caffres, and long continued and alarming illness, 
greatly depressed the missionaries during the earlier years of 
their labors; but they kept their great object — the salvation 
of the souls of the people — steadily in view ; and, after six years' 
labor, administered baptism to twelve individuals, and, before the 
close of the year, a church of converted natives was organized, 
and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper celebrated. A few years 
later the mission was disturbed by an order from the government, 
at Cape Town, demanding twenty men to serve in the Cape regi- 
ment, and the appointment, subsequently, of an agent to reside at 
the town. Suspecting that the missionary had favored this meas- 
ure, the people lost confidence in him ; and a portion of them, 
rather than submit to the imposition, withdrew from the settle- 
ment to a mountainous part of the country, where they determined 
to resist any attempt of the government to enslave them, and to 
oppose that portion of their own people who were even favorable 
to the presence of a government agent among them. These evils 
were increased by other incidents, and for the space of fifteen 
years after the peace of the settlement had been destroyed by the 
demand of the government for men, the mission suffered a series 
of fearful calamities. The missionary never recovered the con- 
fidence of the people, but, broken in spirit, retired in 1820. The 
seceding party, maddened and reckless, committed fearful ravages 
and murders among the defenceless tribes, attacked and burned 
part of Griqua Town itself, and were only induced to retire by the 
persuasions of the missionary, who went to their intrenchments, 



118 PULPIT POLITICS. 

prayed with them, and exhorted them to desist. The Church waa 
reduced from 200 to less than 30, and the mission brought to the 
verge of ruin. In 1830, the mission began to revive, and the 
other stations which had been commenced in the meantime, began 
to bear fruits, so that, in 1840, the congregations at the several 
stations averaged between 3,000 and 4,000 ; the communicants 
were 630, and 900 were taught in the schools. Causes altogether 
beyond the control of the missionaries or people, had, however, 
been some time in operation, which threatened ultimately to drive 
both from tli/e country. The Boers removed, in 1845 and 1846, 
in large numbers and settled among the Griquas and neighbor- 
ing tribes. They soon made war upon the Griquas, and when the 
British government interfered in 1848, they rose in rebellion, but 
were defeated. By the treaty which followed, the country was 
surrendered to the Boers in 1854, and the Griquas left in their 
power. Additions have been every year made to the communi- 
cants, wdiich amount to 400 ; but the evils and disturbances created 
by the conflict between the Boers and the natives, and their politi- 
cal difficulties, are forcing them — after the people luive occupied 
the country for the best part of a century, and the Society has 
labored among them for sixty years — to seek in some distant 
region another, and, as they hope, a more peaceful home. Though 
the district connected with Griqua Town has been exempt from 
disturbance by the Boers, the people have been impoverished and 
dispersed by severe drouths, sometimes continued through six or 
seven successive years. Among those who remain, religious ob- 
servances are maintained, at the several stations, where from 1,200 
to 2,000 assemble for worship every Lord's day. An attempt 
was making, at a point thirty miles distant, to irrigate the lands 
with waters from the Vaal river, and on the success of this effort 
the continuance of the mission in its present locality seems to 
depend. Lekatlong, another mission, has been itself but slightly 
troubled, though assaults in other stations have increased the 
numbers, amounting to 13,000, now depending on its efforts, of 
whom 690 are united in Christian fellowship. * 

We turn next to the mission among the Beciiuanas. This tribe 

* Missionary Magazine, April, 18G1, copied from London Miss. Chronicle. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 119 

lives in the country east of the Namaquas and north of tlie Gri- 
quas. It may be said to be composed of numerous tribes all 
bearing the name of Bechuanas. In 1813, the proposition was 
made to the chief to receive Christian teachers. " Send them, 
and I v,i!l be a father to them," was the reply. In 1817, the 
missionary removed from the station first occupied, with the peo- 
ple, to the Kuruman, where, in 1821, he was joined by Rev. Mr. 
MoFFATT, the well-|cnown historian of South African Missions. 
In 1823, a horde of 40,000 fierce Mantatees, who had desolated 
every country over which they had passed, approached the Kuru- 
man, but were arrested through the vigilance of Mr. Moffatt, 
who secured the aid of the Griquas ; and the mission station, as 
well as the adjacent portions of the colony, were saved from 
ruin. After twelve years' severe and })atient toil, the missionaries 
welcomed to their Christian brotherhood, their first convert. He 
was soon afterward followed by six others; a Christian church 
was then organized, and the first communion celebrated in the 
same year, 1829. The Psalms and the New Testament were 
translated into the language of the natives, and brought to the 
mission in 1843. The work was then prosecuted with great vigor 
and success. At the principal station, civilization and social im- 
provement advanced rapidly, the schools received a new impetus, 
and the church numbered 400 communicants. In 1851, the station 
at Mamusa was broken up by a conflict between the natives and 
the Boers, who had taken possession of the country beyond the 
Vaal river. A treaty with the British secured the country to the 
Boers and left the natives exposed to their tyranny, without the 
means of defence, as the British were bound not to sell the 
natives any arms or ammunition. The Boers soon manifested 
their intentions toward the natives and the missions ; Mabotsa 
and Matebe were broken up, and the people dispersed ; Kolo- 
beng Avas attacked and burned, numbers of the people killed, and 
Dr. Livingstone's house plundered of its contents, while two other 
missionaries were required to leave the country in fourteen days, 
and Mr. Moffatt and the Kuruman threatened. But the Governor 
of the Cape interfered, and that mission is yet safe. The labors 
of Dr. Livingstone, as an explorer, opened up new fields for rais- 
Bions, and the Christians of Britain are supplying them with mis- 



120 PULPIT POLITICS. 

sionaries as rapidly as possible. " Thus while the Society has 
abundant reason to acknoAvledge the Divine goodness in the work 
which the devoted brethren, who have labored during the last 
sixty years in Southern Africa, have been enabled to accomplish, it 
is deeply impressed with the urgent necessity for increased effort 
and more constant prayer in relation to the extended and im- 
portant fields to which Divine Providence now invites its labors." * 
Again, we must turn to former labors for the principal facts in 
relation to the only remaining mission which we shall notice — 
that to the Zulus of South Africa : f 

The Mission of the American Board to the Zulus, in South Africa, 
was begun in 1835. One station was commenced among the maritime 
Zulus, under king Dingaan, who resided on the east side of the Cape, 
some seventy miles from Port Natal ; and the other among the interior 
Zulus, under king Mosilikatsi. | This station was broken up in 1837, 
by a war between the Zulus and the Boers, who were then emigrating 
from the Cape. The missionaries were forced to leave, and join their 
brethren at Natal ; but, in doing this, they were compelled to perform 
a journey of 1,300 miles, in a circuitous route, 1,000 of which was in 
ox wagons, through the wilderness, while they were greatly enfeebled 
by disease, and disheartened by the death of the wife of one of their 
party. 

The missionaries to the maritime Zulus, when their brethren from 
the interior joined them, had succeeded in establishing one station 
among king Dingaan's people, and another at Port Natal, where a 
mixed population, from various tribes, had collected among the Dutch 
Boers, then settling in and around that place. In 1838 a war occurred 
between Dingaan and the Boers, which broke up the missions and 
compelled the missionaries to seek refuge on board some vessels, prov- 
identially at Natal, in which some of them sailed to the United States 
and others to the Cape. 

Peace being made in 1839, a part of the missionaries returned to 
Natal and resumed their labors. But a revolt of one-half the Zulus 
in 1840, under Umpandi, led to another war, in which the new chief 
and the Boers succeeded in overthrowing Dingaan. His death by the 
hand of an old enemy, into whose territory he fled, left the Zulus 

* Missionary Magazine, June, 1861, from London Miss. Chronicle. 
tSee "Ethiopia," for full particulars. 
X See MoflFatt's South African Missions. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 121 

under the rule of Umpundi. This chief allowed the mis;^ion in his 
territory to be renewed in 1841. But, in 1842, a war broke out 
between the Boers, at Natal, and the British ; who, to prevent the 
Boers from organizing an independent government, had taken posses- 
sion of that place. In this contest, the Boers were forced to submit 
to British authority, and British law was extended to the population 
around Natal. This led to large desertions of the Zulus to Natal, to 
escape from the cruelties of Umpandi ; and he, becoming jealous of 
the missionary, attacked the mission and butchered three of the prin- 
cipal families engaged in its support. Thus, a second time, was this 
mission broken up and the mission family forced to retreat to Natal. 

Here, then, at the opening of 1843, nearly eight years after the 
missionaries reached Africa, they had not a single station in the Zulu 
country, to which they had been sent ; and they were directed, by the 
Board, to abandon the field. From this they were prevented, by the 
timely remonstrances of the Bev. Dr. Philip, of the English mission 
at the Cape. 

A crisis, however, had now arisen, by which the conflicting elements 
hitherto obstructing the Grospel, were rendered powerless or reduced 
to order, by the strong arm of Great Britain. The fierce Boers had 
destroyed the power of both Mosilikatsi and Dingaan, and taught the 
Zulu people that they could safely leave the standard of their chiefs; 
while the Boers, in turn, had been subjected to British authority, 
along with the Zulus whom they had designed to enslave. The basis 
of a colony, under the protection of British law, was thus laid at 
Natal, which aiforded security to the missionaries, and enabled them 
to establish themselves on a permanent basis. An attempt was also 
made to renew the mission in the Zulu territory, but Umpandi refused 
his assent, and the strength of the mission was concentrated within 
the Natal Colony. 

Owing to the continued cruelties of Umpandi, the desertions of his 
people to Natal increased, until the Colony included a native popula- 
tion, mostly Zulus, of nearly 100,000. 

No serious interruptions have occurred, since the British occupied 
Natal ; and opportunities have been afi"orded for studying the Zulu 
character, and the remaining obstacles to missionary success among 
thai people. Time has shown, that the tyranny of the chiefs, and the 
wars of the tribes with each other, or with the whites, are not the 
most obstinate difficulties to be overcome. 

From the Report of the Board for 1850, we learn, that though there 
were then, in this field, 12 missionaries, 14 assistants, 6 native helpers, 



122 PULPIT POLITICS. 

18 places of preaching, and 8 schools ; there were but 78 church 
members and 185 pupils. The report attributes the slow progress 
made, to the extreme moral degradation of the population ; and, in 
mentioning particulars, names polygamy as the most prominent. As 
among the native Africans generally, so is it here, superstition and 
sensuality are the great barriers to the progress of the Gospel. 

But these difficulties do not deter the American Board from perse- 
vering in their great work of converting Africa. The men composing 
the Board know, full well, that the evils existing in all mission fields 
can only be removed by God's appointed means, the Gospel ; and, 
that to withdraw it from Africa, would be to render its evils perpetual. 
Hence, as obstacles rise, they multiply their agencies for good ; and, 
in view of the consistent conduct and piety of the native converts, the 
Report of 1850, recommends the establishment of a Theological 
school for training a native ministry for that field. The Reports for 
1851 and 1852 are more encouraging, and show an increase of 86 
church members, 16 children baptized, and 15 Christian marriages 
solemnized. The Report for 1853 is less encouraging. The whole 
number of church members is now 141, of whom only 8 were received 
during the year. Family schools are sustained at all the stations ; 
hut none of the heathen send their children. Three day-schools are 
taught by native converts, in which the children of those residing at 
the stations, where they are located, receive instruction. One girls' 
school, consisting of about 20 pupils, is taught by Mrs. Adams. * 
The Christian Zulus are advancing in civilization and in material 
prosperity; but the heathen population are manifesting more and 
more of stupid indifference or bitter hostility to the Gospel. This is 
more particularly indicated in their refusal to send their children to 
school. 

The passage of this mission from the class beyond the protection 
of the Colonies, to that of those deriving security from them, released 
it from the annoyances occasioned by native wars, and left it to con- 
tend with the obstacles, only, which are inherent in heathenish bar- 
barism. It had, consequently, begun to progress encouragingly. But 
a new element of disturbance has recently been introduced, which 
threatens to be no less hurtful than the old causes of interruption 
and insecurity. We refer to the immigration of the English into the 
Natal Colony, and their efforts to dispossess the Zulus of their lands. 

Before taking any further notice of this threatening evil, we must 

* Missionary llerald, for December, 1853, and January, 185i 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 123 

call particular attention to another point, the importance of wliicli has, 
perhaps, been too much overlooked. In January, 1853, the Rev. Mr. 
Tyler thus wrote : 

"I have many thoughts, of late, concerning the great obstacle 
vehich lies in the way of elevating the Zulus. It seems to me that it 
is their deep ignorance. We find it exceedingly difficult to throw even 

one ray of light into minds so darkened and perverted by sin 

Of the great mass who attend our services on the Sabbath, but few, 
probably, have any clear knowledge of the plan of salvation through 
faith in Christ. Especially is this true of the female sex, whose con- 
ditition, both temporal and spiritual, seems almost beyond the reach 
of improvement." 

Mr. Tyler proceeds to show, that the Zulus, in their religious hclief, 
their worship, and their blind submission to the witch-doctors, evince 
the most deep, gross, and stupid ignorance imaginable ; but he pre- 
sents nothing as belonging to that people, which is not common to 
the African tribes generally. Without, at present, remarking on the 
relation which the ignorance of barbarism bears to the progress of mis- 
sions, we shall recur to the efiects of the immigration of the whites 
into the Colony of Natal. 

When the Zulus deserted their king and took refuge at Natal, there 
were but few whites present to be affected by the movement, and allot- 
ments of lands were readily obtained for them. Soon afterward, how- 
ever, an emigration from Great Britain began to fill up the country. 
The main object of the whites was agriculture, and the best unoccu- 
pied lands were soon appropriated. The new immigrants then com- 
menced settling on the possessions of the Zulus. The designs of the 
whites soon manifested itself so openly, that the missionaries have 
been obliged to interpose for the protection of the natives. Accord- 
ingly, a committee of their number was deputed to wait upon the 
Lieutenant-Governor, to learn his intentions on the subject. The report 
of the interview, as made to the American Board, read as follows : 

"He plainly gave us to understand, that instead of collecting the 
natives in bodies, as has hitherto been the policy, it was his purpose 
to disperse them among the colonists, and the colonists among them. 
The natural result will be, to deteriorate our fields of labor, by dimin- 
ishing the native population, and by introducing a foreign element, 
which, as all missionary experience proves, conflicts with christianizing 
interests. Nor did he assure us that even our stations would not be 



124 I'UM'I'J POLITICS. 

infringed hy foreign Hcttlers ; but our buildings and their bare sites, 
he encouraged uk to expect, would at all events remain to us undis- 
turbed. JJut lest this stat<;nient convey an impression which is too 
discouraging, we would say, that many of our fields embrace tracts of 
coulitry so broken, as not to be eligible as farms for the immigrants; 
and, hence, no motive would exist for dispossessing the native occu- 
pants, unless it would be to transfer them to the more immediate 
vicinity of the white population, in order to facilitate their obtaining 
servants; which at present is so di0icult as to be considered one of 
the crying evils of the Colony. 80 deep is the feeling on this subject, 
that njany and strenuous are those who advocate a resort to some 
system of actual imprisonment. This seems a strange doctrine to be 
held by the sons of Britain ! " 

Then, after expressing an opinion that the obstacles in the way of 
this measure may prevent its execution for some years to come, the 
report concludes : 

" Yet it is more than probable, that some of our stations will ex- 
perience the disadvantages of the too great proximity of white settlers. 
The evils of such a proximity are aggravated by the prejudices which 
exist against missionaries and their operations. And perhaps we 
should say, that, as American missionaries, we are regarded with still 
greater jealousy. We fear it will require years to live down these 
prejudices. Public opinion is more or less fashioned by the influence 
of unprincipled speculators, alike ignorant of missionaries, their 
labors, or the native people. Such men, greedy of the soil of the 
original proprietors, arc naturally jealous and envious of those who, 
they suppose, would befriend the natives in maintaining their rights. 
If we speak at all, of course we must say what we think to be justice 
and truth. If we remain silent, as we have hitherto done, we are 
misrepresented, and our motives are impugned. So that whichever 
course we take, we can not expect to act in perfect harmony with all 
the interests of all the men who, within the last few years, have come 
to tlie Colony." * 

Passing on to 1861, we find the annual report of the Board 
stating the strength of this mission thus : stations 12, out-stations 
6, missionaries 14, female assistant-missionaries 14, native helpers 
2, members 283. 

♦ MiBsionary Herald, February, 1853. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 125 

The government now takes an interest in the mission, and has 
given titles to the land upon which the buildings of the several 
Stations are situated. The report says, in relation to the success 
of the mission : 

" To the ten churches established by our brethren among the Zulus, 
there have been received, in all, 283 members, who, for the most part, 
have exhibited a consistent Christian deportment, certainly to as great 
extent as could have been expected, when we take into view thei> 
former lives and the circumstances in which they are placed. It is 
not surprising that there have been cases of defection. Twenty-six 
were added to the churches during the last year." 

This closes what is necessary to understand the condition of 
the South African missions, and the relation they sustain to the 
missions elsewhere established for the benefit of the African race. 
These missions, in 1858, stood as follows, as estimated in the 
Encyclopjedia of Missions. Ten Missionary Societies occupied 
the field, and their number of converts, as far as reported, was 
14,258 — three of the smaller societies not reporting any members. 

The missionaries among the American slaves have rested upon 
downy pillows, as compared with the hardships endured by those 
of South Africa. 

2. The ohstack'S fo African Evanfjdization in Wenl; Africa. 

The missions at Sierra Leone liave been noticed in Chapter I., 
and the reader will take note of the facts in this connection. No 
progress Avhatever was made so long as the slave trade prevailed; 
but from the date of its suppression the work began to prosper. 
The Episcopal mission, established in Sierra Leone, in 1808, has 
been continued without interruption, except what necessarily 
arose from the great mortality among the missionaries. A col- 
lege and several schools were established at an early day, in 
which orphan and destitute children Avere boarded and instructed. 
Besides teaching the schools, the missionaries preached to the 
adults, a few of whom embraced the Gospel ; but no very en- 
couraging progress was made for many years. In 1817, how- 
ever, the labors expended began to unfold their effects, and the 
mission to make encouraging advances ; so that, by 1832. it had 



126 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



638 communicants and 294 candidates in its clmrches, 684 Sab- 
bath-scool scholars, and 1,388 pupils in its daj-scliools. 

Thus, in forty-five years after the founding of Sierra Leone, 
and twenty-four after the abolition of the slave trade, was the 
basis of this mission broadly and securely laid. Since that period 
it has been extended eastward to Badagry, Abbeokuta, and Lagos. 
In connection with all these missions, but chiefly in Sierra Leone, 
the Episcopal Church, in 1850, had 54 seminaries and schools, 
6,600 pupils, 2,183 communicants, and 7,500 attendants on public 
worship. Of the teachers in the schools at Sierra Leone, it is 
worthy of remark, that only five were Europeans, while fifty-six 
were native Africans. 

The mission of the English Wesleyans, in 1831 — twenty 
years after its commencement — included 2 missionaries, 294 
church members, and about 160 pupils in its schools. This mis- 
sion, like the Episcopal, progressed slowly at first; but as it 
collected the elements of progress within its bosom, it, also, began 
to expand, and is now advancing prosperously. Its stations have 
been extended westward to the Gambia, and eastward to various 
points, including Cape Coast Castle, Badagry, . Abbeokuta, and 
Kumasi. In connection with these missions, the Wesleyan Meth- 
odists, in 1850, had 44 chapels, 13 out-stations, 42 day-schools, 
97 teachers, 4,500 pupils, including those in the Sabbath-schools, 
6,000 communicants, on trial 560, and 14,600 attendants on pub- 
lic worship. 

The missions of both these Societies, established to the east- 
ward of Sierra Leone, have encountered many difficulties from the 
wars of the natives, provoked, mainly, by the influence of the 
slave traders. 

The strength of these missions, in 1860, stood as follows:* 



DENOMINATIONS. 


MISSIONARIES. 


TEACHERS. 


SCHOLARS. 


MEMBERS. 


Episcopal Church 


120 
20 


200 
IGO 


fi.OOO 

5.000 


3,000 

18,000 




Total 


HO 


300 


11,000 


21,000 




The missions connected with Liberia are also of great interest 



•Scotch Record, as quoted by the Missionary Magazine. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 127 

in connection with the subject under consideration. Details of 
their history, at length, need not be given, as the results of the 
establishment of the colony are familiar to all. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States 
has one of its principal missions in Liberia. The nucleus of this 
mission consisted of several members, and one or two local 
preachers, of the Methodist Church, who went out, in 1820, with 
the first emigrants. In March, 1833, Rev. Melville B. Cox, the 
first ordained missionary, landed in Monrovia. In 1853, this 
mission embraced 1,301 members, of whom 116 were natives, and 
there were 115 probationers. The mission had 15 Sunday-schools, 
with 839 pupils, of whom 50 were natives ; and 20 week-day- 
schools, with 513 scholars. There were also 7 schools among the 
natives, with 127 pupils. 

According to the Report for 1861, this mission embraces 1,392 
Americo-Liberian members, 89 probationers, 72 native members, 
600 scholars in week-day-schools, and 930 in Sabbath-schools. 

On contrasting these results, with those of a few years back, it 
would appear that the progress of this mission^ among the natives, 
has not been very encouraging. There have been adequate causes 
for this — causes which the Christian world, and especially the 
American abolitionist, should calmly consider. Their nature may 
be inferred from what has been reported on the subject by Bishop 
ScoTT, who made an ofiicial visit to Liberia — leaving at the close 
of 1852, and returning in April, 1853, having spent seventy 
days in the Colony. He represents the spiritual condition of 
the mission, as generally healthy and prosperous ; and the work 
as going steadily onward. In relation to the civil and social con- 
dition of the Colony, the Bishop bears the following testimony: 

" The government of the Republic of Liberia, which is formed on 
the model of our own, and is wholly in the hands of colored men, 
seems to be exceedingly well administered. I never saw so orderly a 
people. I saw but one intoxicated colonist while in the country, and 
I heard not one profane word. .The Sabbath is kept with singular 
strictness, and the churches crowded with attentive and orderly wor- 
shipers." 

But, as regards the missions among the natives, the Bishop says, 



128 PULPIT POLITICS. 

very little indeed has been done — mucli less than the friends of the 
mission seem to have good reason to expect — much less than he him- 
self expected. The result of his inquiries is by no means flattering, 
and he felt, and feared that the Board would feel, disappointed. 
These results, however, he says, are not due to any want of faithful- 
ness on the part of the missionaries ; as other denominations have 
not been more successful — perhaps not quite so much so — but are 
the result of the peculiar condition of the native population. 

The first difficulty, says the Bishop, which meets the missionary, 
on going to this people is an unknown tongue ; a tongue, too, which 
varies so much, as he passes from one tribe to another, within the 
space of only a few miles, that it often amounts to a different language. 
The nature of this obstacle will be so easily comprehended, that the 
details given by the Bishop, need not be quoted. He thus proceeds : 

" But now another difficulty assails him — one which his knowledge 
of men in other parts of the world had given him no reason to antici- 
pate. Though he may in some way get over the difficulty presented 
in a rude foreign tongue, yet he now finds, to his utter surprise, that 
he can not gain access to this people unless he dash them, (that is, 
make them presents,) and only as he dashes them. When, where, or 
how this wretched custom arose I can not tell, but it is found to pre- 
vail over most parts of Africa, and, so far as I know, no where else. 
But what shall our missionary now do? Will he dash them? Will 
he dash them ' much plenty ? ' Then they will hear him — they will 
flock around him — nay, he may do with them almost as he wists. 
and a nation may be born in a day. But let him not be deceived, for 
all is not gold, here especially, that glitters. So soon as he withholds 
his dashes, ten to one they are all as they were. Bat is he poor and 
can not dash them? — or able, but on principle will not? Then, as a 
general fact, he may go home. They will not hear him at all, nor 
treat him with the least respect. Indeed, they will probably say, 
'He no good man,' — and it will be well for him if they do not get 
up a palaver against him and expel him from their coasts. This 
dashing is a most mischievous custom — dreadfully in the way of mis- 
sionary labor, and I know not how it is to be controlled. I am sick 
of the very sound of the word. The Lord help poor Africa ! 

"But the difficulties multiply. Now a hydra-headed monster gapes 
upon our missionary, of most frightful aspect, and as tenacious of life 
as that fabled monster of the ancient poets. It is polygamy. He 
finds to his grief and surprise, that every man has as many wives as 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOxM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 129 

he can find money to buy. He must give them all up but one, if he 
would be a Christian. But will he give them up? Not easily. He 
will give up almost any thing before he will give up his wives. They 
are his slaves, in fact; they constitute his wealth. And then it is 
difficult, not to say impossible, to persuade him that it is not somehow 
morally wrong to put them away. 'Me send woman away? — where 
she go to ? — what she do ? ' This I consider the hugest difficulty 
with which Christianity has to contend in the conversion of this peo- 
ple, and makes me think that she must look mainly to the rising 
generation. 

"But here, too, a difficulty arises. The female children are con- 
tracted away — are sold, in ftict — by their parents while they are yet 
very young, often while they are infants ; and if the missionary would 
procure them for his schools, he must pay the dower — some fifteen 
or twenty dollars. 

" But our missionary finds that the whole social and domestic organ- 
ization of these people is opposed to the pure, chaste, and comely 
spirit of the Gospel, and that, to succeed in this holy work, it must 
not only be changed, but revolutionised — upturned from the very 
foundation. Is there no difficulty here? Are habits and customs, so 
long established and so deeply rooted, to be given up without a 
struggle ? The native people, both men and women, go almost stark 
naked, and they love to go so — and are not abashed in the presence 
of people better dressed ; they eat with their hands, and dip, and 
pull, and tear, with as little ceremony and as little decency as monk- 
eys, and they love to eat so ; they sleep on the bare ground, or on 
mats spread on the ground, and they love to sleep so ; the men hunt 
or fish, or lounge about their huts, and smoke their pipes, and chat, 
and sleep, while their wives, alias their slaves, tend and cut and house 
their rice — -cut and carry home their wood — make their fires, fetch 
their water, get out their rice, and prepare their 'chop' — and all, 
even the women, love to have it so. And to all the remonstrances of 
the missionary, they oppose this simple and all-settling reply : ' This 
be countryman's fash.' They seem incapable of conceiving that your 
fash is better than theirs, or that theirs is at all defective. Your fash, 
they will admit, may be better for you, but theirs is better for them. 
So the natives of Cape Palmas have lived, in the very midst of the 
colonists, for some twenty years, and they are the same people still, 
with almost no visible change." 

The Bishop next notices their superstitions and idolatries, and the 
9 



130 PULPIT POLITICS. 

evils connected with their belief in witchcraft; and says, that though, 
by the influence of the colony and missions, their confidence is, in 
some places, being shaken in some of them ; they generally even yet 
think you a fool, and pity you, if you venture to hint that there is 
nothing in them. But we must not quote him farther than to include 
his closing remarks : 

•= But what! Do you then think that there is no hope for these 
heathen, or that we should give up all hopes directed to that end? 
Not I, indeed. Very far from it. I would rather reiterate the noble 
saying of the sainted Cox : ' Though a thousand fall even, in this at- 
tempt, yet let not Africa be given up.' I mention these things to 
show, that there are solid reasons why our brethren in Africa have 
accomplished so little ; and also to show, that the Churches at home 
must, in this work particularly, exercise the patience of foith and the 
labor of love. We must still pound the rock, even though it is hard, 
and our mnllets be but of wood. It will break one day."* 

The other missions, established in Liberia, are under the con- 
trol of the following denominations : American Protestant Epis- 
copal Church, The Presbyterian Board of Missions, (0. S.,) 

=^' It will be proper, here, to add some testimony from anotliei* source, in ref- 
erence to the terrible moral degradation of the inhabitants of Africa, where 
civilized men have not yet extended their sway. Within the jurisdiction of 
Sierra Leone and Liberia, the cruelties of African superstitions can no longer 
be practiced with impunity. This result, alone, will amply repay the toil and 
treasure expended upon these colonies. 

The Neio York Observer, of September 5, 1861, has the following article: 

"Heathendom at tue Present Hour. — Du Chaillu, in his new and popular 
book on Africa, as well as in his lectures, has brought prominently before the 
Christian public the horrible effects of a belief in witchcraft among the tribes 
in the interior of Africa. Other writers have testified to the same state of 
things, and we refer to a recent letter written by a missionary of the United 
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, for the purpose of citing a few facts to ex- 
hibit the condition of society at the preseot moment within sixty days' travel 
of our church doors: 

"'His death was the occasion of a painful display of the evil passions that 
are nurtured by the superstitions of heathenism. All Africans believe thai 
certain persons know how to make charms that are potent to destroy human life. 
It was alleged that an uncle of the deceased, named Egbo Eyo, had thus destroyed 
his nephew. There was also a feud between this man and the slaves of his 
brother, old King Eyo; he regarded them with scorn, and they cherished 
toward him a fierce hatred. 

"'The body was buried on the day after the decease, in the manner usual 



missions under freedom and slavery contrasted. 131 

The Foreign Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist 
Convention, and The American Baptist Missionary Union. 
In addition to these missions in Liberia, there are others, among 
the native Africans, in Western Africa, which deserve a notice. 
These are the missions of the American Board, on the Gaboon, 
and the mission of the American Missionary Association, at 
Mendi, with a few others. 

among tho Efik people. Many valiial)les, and a large amount, of goods, wove 
pu-t into the grave, along with certain parts of a cow, slaughtered for the pur- 
pose. On that day, the news having spread, many of the slaves gathered into 
the town. Egbo Eyo, along with the other freemen of the town, busied him- 
self in the funeral ceremony. It would appear that the slaves began to regard 
him with an evil eye, either from having heard the report already mentioned 
or under the influence of the hatred which they bore to him, or both; and 
early next morning they made an attack on his place, fired into it, and shot 
one of his women. Seeing escape hopeless, the poor man surrendered; and the 
infuriated mob dragged him to the market-place, slashing him with their cut- 
lasses, and beating him with sticks and the butt end of their guns. The poor 
man was no craven; he behaved with the greatest courage; coolly and sharply 
answered the taunts of the armed mob; and neither tried to flee nor stooped 
to beg. The probability is that they would have killed him outright at once, 
but for the interference of the Europeans who happened to be at Creek Town 
that morning. The missionary at that place being on a sick bed, and unable 
to be on the scene, the teacher, Mr. Timson, exerted himself on the poor man's 
behalf, which his knowledge of the language enabled him the better to do. 
But their united efforts could not save the victim — the people were determined 
that he should die; but they agreed to talk over the matter, in regular Efik 
form, with the freemen of the town, and with a deputation who came from 
Duke Town. The greater part of the day was spent in this palaver; but noth- 
ing that was said produced the slighest eifect on the minds of the people. 
There was no power in the country to take the man out of their hands; and, 
at length, after he had lain in his blood in the sand all day, they hung him on 
.a tree, he himself helping to put the rope round his neck. 

'"The same evening they hung a slaA^e, who was believed to have made the 
charm for Egbo Eyo, by means of which King Eyo had died. One of his women 
also was dragged out by a band of women, and, after being severely beaten, 
was mercilessly hung. Some days afterward, a slave of Egbo Eyo's, who was? 
accused of having been art and part with his master, was caught and hung. 

" 'But a more painful illustration of heathen wickedness remains to be told. 
Between two of the daughters of old King Eyo, by diff"erent mothers, an old 
and growing hatred existed. One of these. Ansa, who was a sister of the late 
King by the same mother, came forward to accuse her half sister, Inyang, of 
having killed their brother by a secret power called ifot, and also of having 
by the same means destroyed the reason of a younger brother, who appears to 
be in a state of hopeless idiocy. She alleged that this had been revealed by 



132 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



The present condition of all these missions — and, also, of the 
English missions at Sierra Leone, and their out-stations — appears 
from the following statistics, which we find in the Missionary 
Magazine, June, 1861, which copies them from the Scotch Record'. 



RELIGIOUS DEN03IINATI0NS. 


MISSIONAK'S. 


TEACHEKS. 


MEMBERS. 


SCHOLABS. 


Wesleyan Methodist, (JErrcflish) 

Church Mi'ision, (Eiiqiish) 


» 20 

t 120 

23 

23 

25 

13 

6 

3 

17 

15 


160 

200 
22 
20 

27 
15 


18,000 

3,000 
1,400 
700 
150 
369 
130 
40 

t 307 


5,000 

6,000 
850 
500 
200 
550 
300 
400 

150 


Methodist Ejiiseopal, {American)... 


Presbyterian Mission, {AnKrican). 
Episcopal ]\Iis3ion, (American) 




American Missionary Association, 
{Mendi Mission) 

Scotch Presbyterian, ( United Seces- 
sion) 


Total .. 


265 


Ui 


24,096 


13,950 





several abudiong whom she had consulted; and she demanded that Inyang Eyo 
should be tried by the ordeal of the esere. The esere is a bean of a very poison- 
ous nature; and it is believed that if a person who has i/ot eat this bean he is 
sure to die, -while if he have it not he will certainly vomit all up. Inyang de- 
fended herself, admitting that she had had many a quarrel with their deceased 
brother about their father's" property, but declaring that they had been recon- 
ciled, and denying that she had ever done anything against the life of their 
brother. She refused to take the esere by herself, but if her accuser were made 
to take it along with her, she would consent. But the malice of the other was 
not to be thus baulked. She distributed new muskets among some of the peo- 
ple, pledging them to shoot Inyang, if she did not die by the esere. At length 
the poor woman gave in, was conveyed into one of the yards of her father's 
place, took the oi-deal, and died.' 

"The people among whom such atrocities are perpetrated to-day, are accessi- 
ble to the arts and appliances of civilized life, and if there was any power in 
education or trade, to rescue them from the degradation and misery of such a 
state of society as is here disclosed, it would be tlic dictate of common human- 
ity to attempt to save them. But Christians believe there is power in the 
Gospel to transform such superstitious and cruel beings, into kind, humane, 
and happy people. The Gospel has done it for others, and may do the same 
for them. Yet there is not enough practical Christianity in the whole world to 
enlighten the interior of Africa with the knowledge of salvation, and it is 
probable that the present generation, if not the next, will pass away before any- 
thing eflfectual will be done to dispel the darkness of those habitations of cruelty." 

*In addition, there are 75 local preachers. 

t This includes native assistants, many of whom are ordained 

X These figures are from the American Christian Record, 1860. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 133 

The obstacles to missionary success in Africa, referred to by 
Bishop Scott, are not the only ones operating in that field. The 
unhealthiness of the climate has been very fatal to the health 
and lives of the white missionaries. The extent of this mortality 
may be inferred from the fact, that — 

Of the xohite missionaries who entered the field in Liberia, durin<^ 
the first thirty years of its existence, but two or three remained at 
the close of that period — all the others having died or been dis- 
abled by the loss of health. Take, as an example, the Episcopal 
Mission. Twenty white laborers, male and female, entered that mis- 
sion, up to 1849, of whom only the Rev. Mr. Payne and his wife, 
and Dr. Perkins, remained. All the others had fallen at their posts 
or been forced to retreat. Take that of the Presbyterian Board 
also : Of nineteen white missionaries, male and female, sent out, up 
to May, 1851, nine had died, seven returned, and three remained; 
while of fourteen colored missionaries, male and female, employed, 
hut four have died, and one returned on account of ill health. Take 
the Methodists likewise : Of the thirteen white missionaries sent 
out, six had died, six returned, and one remained, in 1848 ; while of 
thirty-one colored missionaries employed by this church, only seven 
had died natural deaths, and fourteen remained in active service. 
The extent of this mortality among the white missionaries will be 
comprehended, when it is stated, that their average period of life, 
up to nearly the last-named date, has been only two years. The 
mission work in Liberia, therefore, has necessarily fallen into the 
hands of colored men ; and, thus, the Providence of God has aftbrded 
to that race an opportunity to display their powers, and to show to 
the world what, under favorable circumstances, they are capable of 
achieving.* 

A more striking illustration of the dangerous character of 
these mission fields, to white missionaries, will be afforded by 
giving the details of one of them — the Baptists'. This mission 
was begun, in 1822, under the care of Lot Carey and Collin 
Teage On the death of Mr. Carey, the mission had to be sup- 
plied from the United States ; and the following are the results : 

In December, 1830, Eev. B. Skinner, a white man, with his wifi 
♦See "Ethiopia." 



134 PULPIT POLITICS. 

and two children, reached Monrovia, to take charge of the mission. 
They were all seized with the African fever, soon after landing, and 
Mrs. Skinner and the children died. Mr. S. so far recovered as to 
emhark for home, in July following, but died the twentieth day of 
the passage. 

In 1834, Dr. Skinner, the father of the missionary, went out as a 
physician, and was afterward appointed governor of the colony. 
Soon after his arrival, he recommended the Baptist Board to establish 
their mission, for the benefit of the natives, among the Bassa tribe. 

In 1835, two other white men, Bev. Gr. W. Crocker and Bev. Mr. 
Mylne, were sent out to the Bassas. Mrs. Mylne, who had accom- 
panied her husband, died in a month, and Mr. M., after laboring 
nearly three years, was for<)ed, by ill health, to return to the United 
States. Mr. Crocker continued his labors, and was married, in 1840, 
to Miss Warren, who had gone out as a teacher. She died soon 
afterward, and the declining health of Mr. Crocker compelled him to 
leave for the United States. 

In 1838, two years before Mr. Crocker left, he had been joined by 
Bev. Ivory Clarke and wife, whites, who continued to occupy the 
station, and labored with great success for several years. 

In December, 1840, Messrs. Constantine and Fielding, with their 
wives, all whites, reached the Bassa mission. Mr. and Mrs. F. both 
died in six weeks ; and Mr. and Mrs. C. were so much debilitated 
by the fever that they were compelled to return home in 1842. 

In 1844, the health of Mr. Crocker had become so far restored, 
that he resolved to return to Africa ; and, having been united in 
marriage to Miss Chadbourne, he sailed for Liberia, but died two 
days after landing. '' Thus fell, in the midst of high raised hopes, 
and at an unexpected foment, a missionary of no common zeal and 
devotion to the cause."* 

On the death of Mr. Crocker, his widow attached herself to the 
mission, and labored for its advancement for two years ; when the 
wreck of her constitution, under the influence of the climate, com- 
pelled her to abandon the work, in 1846, and return home. 

In 1848, Mr. Clarke and his wife found their constitutions so com- 
pletely shattered, and their strength so nearly exhausted, that they 
left the mission to return to the United States. But he had tarried 
at his post too long ; death overtook him on the passage, and the 
sea supplied him a grave. 

* Gammel's History of the American Baptist Missions. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 135 

Thus, after tliirteen years' labor, and tlie sacrifice of a noble band 
of martyrs to the cause of African redemption, was the Bassa mis- 
sion left without a head, except so far as it could be supplied by the 
native converts. Among them, there was one preacher and four 
teachers, who kept up the organization of the little church, and 
continued the schools. 

It was not until 1852, that the Board had any offers of mission- 
aries for Bassa, to supply the place of those who had fallen or 
retreated. In that year, however, Rev. J. S. Groodman and Rev. W. 
B. Shermer, and their wives, offered themselves to the Board, and 
were accepted. They set sail November 27, 1852, and were accom- 
panied by Mrs. Crocker, who longed to return to the mission and 
devote her life to the service of her Lord and Master. 

This Mission family was permitted to reach its field of labor in 
safety ; but recent information brings the painful intelligence of the 
death of Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Shermer ; and that Mr. Shermer 
himself, had also been very ill, and had left Africa to return home by 
way of England. In writing from London, under date of January 
13, 1854, he says : " That during the past twelve months, six mis- 
sionaries of different denominations have died, and eight have been 
and are obliged to return to America ; all of whom had gone to 
Africa within the last year. This is indeed a fearful mortality among 
African missionaries. Yet God has a people there, and if the white 
man can not live to evangelize them, he can and will raise up other 
agencies. Educated colored men, in all probability, must and will be 
the only instrumentality employed in the conversion of Africa."* 

The Episcopal Mission in Liberia has its principal seat at 
Cape Palmas. Rev. Mr. Payne, long at its head, Wcas appointed 
a Missionary Bishop for Africa, in 1850. 

In speaking of the necessity of extended effort in the Republic 
of Liberia, the Bishop makes this important statement : " It is now 
very generally admitted, that Africa must be evangelized chiefly by 
her own children. It should be our object to prepare them, so far 
as we may, for their great work. And since colonists afford the 
most advanced materiel for raising up the needed instruments, it 
becomes us, in wise co-operation with Providence, to direct our 
efforts in the most judicious manner to them. To do this, the most 

* Baptidt Missiouary M.igazine, March, 1851. 



136 PULPIT POLITICS. 

important points should be occupied, to become in due time radiating 
centers of Christian influence to Colonists and Natives."* 

The missionaries and teachers in Liberia are nearly all colored men, 
and citizens of the Republic, who yield a cordial support to its laws, 
and enjoy ample protection under its government. These missionaries 
have the control of the schools and churches ; and, consequently, they 
possess the entire direction of the intellectual, moral, and religious 
training of the youth. Liberia, therefore, may be denominated a 
Missionary Republic. And such is the influence the colony has ex- 
erted over the natives, that their heathenish customs and superstitions 
are fast disappearing before the advancing Christian civilization. In 
the county of Messurado, including the seat of government, there no 
longer exists a single temple of heathen worship, f 

The Gaboon Mission is under the care of the American Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Its statistics are not 
included in the preceding table, but will be found in the tabular 
statement of the converts in the missions of the Board. Its first 
missionaries landed in Africa in 1834, and commenced their labors 
under the protection of the Colony at Cape Palmas. Believing 
they could succeed better in an independent position, they re 
moved, in 1842, to the mouth of the Gaboon river, 1,200 miles 
eastward from Liberia. They took with them a few converts from 
Cape Palmas. The missionaries have labored devotedly, but have 
suffered many interruptions, both from sickness, and the inter- 
ference of the slave traders. The coolie traffic, also, conducted 
by the French, has likewise presented obstacles to success. In 
speaking of the obstacles in general, one of the missionaries, a 
few years since, remarked, that here, as elsewhere, the habit of 
taking many wives, or rather concubines, operates as a great 
hindrance to the Gospel ; and that, " demoralizing as this state 
of things is, the people are, nevertheless, firmly attached to it, 
and will continue to be so, until they are inspired with better and 
purer feelings by the Holy Ghost." This mission, in 1850, con- 
sisted of one church of 22 members ; but the report for 1859, 
instead of showing any increase, states that there was a reduc- 



* Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853. 

t Officer of U. S. Navy, in Mr. Gurley's Report, 1853. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 137 

tion of the membership to 12. The annual report of the Board, 
for that year, 1859, thus speaks of the discouraging prospects of 
this mission : 

" The Gaboon mission is attended with more difficulty. The climate 
is unhealthy ; the tribes of people reached by the mission are small, scat- 
tered, and changing in their locality, and often warring on each other. 
After a series of exhausting labors, continued for many years, during 
which about half of our missionary force, on an average, have been 
obliged to be absent from the field, for the recruiting of health, but 
one church, now consisting of twelve members, is reported. Our 
work is one of faith ; we would wait the returns of harvest ; still, in a 
range of labors so extended and varied as those of this Board, that 
particular localities and missions should be surrendered for others of 
less discouragement, and greater prospect of success, is a matter to be 
expected. Some change respecting the Gaboon mission seems to be 
demanded. The committee have grave doubts respecting the wisdom 
of continuing it as at present constituted, and while they are not 
ready to recommend its abrupt termination, they highly appreciate a 
suggestion in the Prudential Committee's Report, that efforts be made 
to obtain native preachers and helpers from Sierra Leone and other 
places, and train them for the work." 

The Report for 1861, contains the suggestion, from one of the 
missionaries who had investigated the subject, that the discourage- 
ments at the Gaboon are not peculiar to that place ; and that no 
change of locality would give a more hopeful field. It is also 
stated that a more decided religious interest had prevailed during 
the last year than for a long period before. The members, as 
given in the " Memorial Volume," number 15. 

The Mendi Mission is one of peculiar interest, and will be 
referred to in connection with the West India Missions. The 
results of this mission, as well as that at the Gaboon, serve a good 
purpose, as illustrating the mistaken views of the abolitionists, in 
their estimate of the character of the African race in its barbar- 
ous state. 

3. The obstacles to African Evangelization in Brazil. 

The blacks transported from Africa to Brazil have been sub- 
jected to influences as unfavorable to moral improvement as those 



138 PULPIT POLITICS. 

taken to any other country. Unfortunately for Brazil, its early 
settlers from Europe failed to secure to themselves any degree of 
liberty of conscience in the exercise of their religious principles ; 
but, in accordance "with the spirit of the times, the most rigid and 
extreme measures were adopted to preserve unity of faith. Two 
ministers and fourteen students, sent out to Brazil by the Prot- 
estant Church of Geneva, were prevented, by the sanguinary 
fanaticism of the adherents of the established religion, from in- 
troducing a Bible Christianity. The leading men of the party of 
Huguenots, who fled to Brazil in 1555 from persecution in France, 
were thrown into prison ; and, after eight years' confinement, 
John Boles, the most prominent of the prisoners, was martyred, 
at Rio de Janeiro, " for the sake of terrifying his countrymen, if 
any of them should be lurking in those parts." The Methodist 
Episcopal Church of the United States, a few years since, at- 
tempted to enter Brazil as a missionary field, but the effort, 
proving unsuccessful, was abandoned. 

Without the Bible as a moral instructor of youth, and without 
the presence of the advocates of religious liberty, as rivals to 
stimulate and liberalize the state religion, it is not a matter of 
wonder that the Brazilians should have sunk in the scale of moral 
being. The population of Brazil, in 1850, included but 1,500,000 
whites, while there were 3,000,000 slaves, and 2,500,000 Indians 
and free negroes. The rising generations of whites, coming more 
or less under the influence of the native heathenism, could not 
attain as high a standard of intelligence and morals as those 
which had preceded them. It was to be expected, therefore, that 
the costly church edifices, erected by the pious zeal and profuse 
liberality of the early Portuguese emigrants, should often be per- 
verted from the use to which they were originally consecrated; 
and, as is asserted in Kidder's Bkazil, that the preaching of the 
Gospel should not be known among the weekly services of the 
church ; and, also, as declared by Soutiiey, that its practices 
should be those of polytheism and idolatry. Such were the evil 
tendencies of the religious system of Brazil, that, in 1843, the 
minister of justice and ecclesiastical affairs, addressed the Im- 
perial Legislature on the subject, and called for reform. Among 
many other things he said : 



MISSIONS UNDER FIlliEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED, 139 

" Tlie state uf retrogression into wliicli the clergy are falling is 

notorious It may be obse'rved, that tbe numerical ratio 

of those priests who die, or become incompetent through age and in- 
firmity, is two to one of those who receive ordination 

This is not the place to investigate the causes of such a state of things, 
but certain it is, that no persons of standing devote their sons to the 

priesthood In the province of Para, there are parishes 

which, for twelve years and upward, have had no pastor. The dis- 
trict of the river Negro, containing some fourteen settlements, has 
but one priest; while that of the river Solemoens is in similar cir- 
cumstances. In the three comarcas of Belem, and Upper and Lower 
Amazon, there are thirty-six vacant parishes. In Maranham, twenty- 
five churches have, at different times, been advertised as open for 
applications, without securing the offer of a single candidate. The 
Bishop of St. Paulo affirms the same thing respecting vacant churches 
in his diocese, and it is no uncommon experience elsewhere. In the 
diocese of Cuyaba, not a single church is provided with a settled 
curate, and those priests who officiate as stated supplies, treat the 
Bishop's efforts to instruct and improve them with great indifference. 
In the Bishopric of Piio de Janeiro, most of the churches are supplied 
with pastors, but a great number of them only temporarily. This 
diocese embraces four provinces, but during nine years past not more 
than five or six priests have been ordained per year." 

Among this general dearth of religious instruction among the 
Brazilians, it will of course be expected that the moral training 
of the poor slave has been totally neglected, and that he yet 
remains in all the darkness and degradation of barbarism. An 
American in Brazil, writing to the Boston Advocate, from Rio, in 
1849, says : 

" Every one, on his first landing at Rio, will be forced to the con- 
clusion that all classes indiscriminately mingle together ; all appearing 
on terms of the utmost equality. If there be any distinction, it is 
perceptible only between freedom and slavery. There are many blacks 
here quite wealthy and respectable, who amalgamate with the white 
families, and are received on a footing of perfect equality. The 
mechanical arts are at least half a century behind those of our own. 
The churches, some fifty in number, are falling to decay, which gives 
to the city a look of dilapidation ; few are still observant of its cere- 
monies ; b'jt little or no attention is paid to the Sabbath. The stores 



140 PULPIT POLITICS. 

do business, and the workshops are open, the same as on other days. 
A few may be seen going to worship on the Sabbath, but a greater 
number resort to billiard tables in the afternoon, and to theaters at 
night. The slave population is estimated at three times the number 
of that of the whites. They are allowed to go almost naked, the 
tipper part of the body of both male and female entirely so." 

4. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in Cuba. 

In relation to Cuba, the tale is soon told. According to M'Queen, 
its slave population, some years ago, was four hundred and twenty-five 
thousand, of whom one hundred and fifty thousand were females, and 
two hundred and seventy-five thousand were males. This dispropor- 
tion of the sexes will sufiicicntly indicate the social evils growing out 
of such a condition of things. Since that period, the slave trade has 
received a great stimulus, by the opening of the English markets to 
slave-grown sugar ; and the continued importation of slaves into Cuba, 
gives her at present six hundred thousand. She has also one hundred 
thousand free colored persons, and six hundred and ten thousand 
whites. 

A report read before the London Anti-Slavery Society, 1843, rep- 
resents the plantation slaves of Cuba as never receiving the least 
moral or religious instruction. "Most of them are baptized, because 
the curate's certificate of baptism serves as a title deed in the civil 
courts of the island. They live, in general, in a state of concubinage. 
They have not the most distant idea of Christianity. The annual 
decrease by deaths over births is, among the plantation slaves, from 
ten to twelve per cent., and among the others from four to six pei 
cent. The births exceed the deaths among the free colored popula- 
tion, from five to six per cent." * 

5. The Obstacles to African Evaiigelization in Hayti. 

Ilayti has not been passed unnoticed by the Christian world 
As early as 1816, tlie English Wesleyans commenced a mission 
in the Island, but in 1819 the missionary had to leave on account 
of persecution from the adherents of the prevailing religion. 
Religious freedom was not allowed. The missionaries found 
ignorance and immorality predominant at this period, and, in 
one or more instances, had sufficient evidence aflforded to prove 

♦See "Ethiopia" for full par iculars. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 141 

that idolatry was practiced in the island. In the outset, Presi- 
dent Boyer manifested the greatest readiness to encourage and 
promote the plans of the missionaries; and, on their departure, 
not only expressed himself as highly satisfied "with their con- 
duct, but transmitted a donation of £500 to the Society. After 
the missionaries took their leave, the small congregation they 
had gathered could only meet by stealth ; and, on one occasion, 
a number of them were seized by the police, and carried to 
prison. On trial, they were prohibited, in the name of the 
President, from meeting together; still, however, a few remained 
faithful, and in 1834, another missionary arrived, followed after- 
wards by others, so that, in 1853, the mission had 429 converts 
in its connection. In 1860, the Society report, that the new 
government look with favor on the mission, and is as liberal as 
they can desire. The attendance on preaching is encouraging. 
In 1835, the American Baptist Missionary Society made ar 
attempt to establish a mission in the island, which at first prom- 
ised success, but was abandoned in 1837. 

" About twenty years ago, a society of Wesleyan Methodists estab 
lished a mission in the town of Porto Plata. The Church still lives, 
and is, by foreigners, comparatively well attended; but they have 
not converted a single Catholic, by preaching, from that day to this. 
The reason is, the Catholics will not go to hear them. Yet, for the 
benefits of an education, about one hundred and fifty children were 
sent regularly to school, and there, by the ' infidel ' teaching of the 
Wesleyans, they soon learned to distrust the ceremonies of the 
mother Church. Unfortunately, about two years since, this school 
was discontinued, and, having succeeded in weaning the people from 
positive Catholicism, without yet embracing the Protestant religion, 
it seems to have left them with a general belief in every thing, which 
is, as I take it, the nearest point to a belief in nothing."* 

Of this mission, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, in 1860, 
thus speaks : " The missions in St. Domingo have not recovered 
from the confusion and difiiculty created by political changes." 

Between 1820 and 1829, a brisk emigration from the United 

* Summer on the Caribbeean, by Mr. Harris, an intelligent colored man, 
and Emigration Agent. 



142 PULPIT POLITICS. 

States to Hayti was conducted, transferring 8,000 free colored 
persons to that island, the expenses of 6,000 of whom were 
paid by the Ilaytien government.* This emigration scheme was 
undertaken by those who distrusted the Colonization Society; 
but failing to send missionaries and teachers along with the 
emigrants, they never were able to reap any fruits from their 
sowing. This incident in the history of the black man affords 
another lesson of instruction : standing alone, the uneducated 
negro was as helpless in Hayti in 1830, as he was in London in 
1787. 

The social and moral condition of the island, at the time Boyer 
was overthrown, may be inferred from the fact, that a leader of 
the revolution entered into correspondence with Christian men 
in the United States, in relation to the introduction of mis- 
sionaries. One of the letters from the Haytien, dated in 1843, 
says : 

" You have exactly hit on the essential points in recommending 
the establishment of individual families by marriages, to serve as a 
basis of the great social family, the establishment of institutions for 
the diffusion of moral and religious instruction," etc. 

In 1849, one of the editors of the CJiristian Refiedor visited 
the island, and in reporting on its condition, socially and mor- 
ally, he said : 

'' The Sabbath is the great business day of the week to the middle 
and lower classes, while the rich employ it as a holiday. It is the 
day especially devoted to military parade and marketing. The pub- 
lic squares are crowded with buyers and sellers, and all the shops 
are thronged with customers as on no other day of the week. The 
marriage relation is, for the most part, sustained without a marriage 
Contract, and divorce and polygamy are too common to excite atten- 
tion. The faithful husband of a wife is a character so rare as to be a 
marked exception to the general rule In a word, the insti- 
tutions of the Sabbath and of marriage are alike prostrate. Both 
have a name ; but the Divine object of neither is secured, with a vast 
majority of the population. As a legitimate consequence, profane- 

* Life of Benjamin Lundy. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 143 

nesa, intemperance, and vulgarity extensively characterize all classes 
of society." 

In 1860, Mr. Harris, before quoted, in speaking of the llaytien 
end of the island, and the policy of President Geffard, says : 

" Under Protestant influences, also, several large schools, in which 
hundreds of young girls and boys are being educated, promise in due 
time to present to the world a virtuous female offspring of these 
heroic revolutionists, adorned by all the graces attending the use of 
both the French and English languages, and a body of youths skilled 
at once in commerce, and in the sciences of government, the svrord, 
the anvil, and the plow." 

In speaking of an emigrant settlement of colored Americans, 
not far from Porto Plata, the same writer remarks : 

" How happy will be the effect of such an enterprise on a non- 
progressive people, you have probably anticipated from what I have 
previously observed ; " and, then, as an evidence of the indolence of 
the population, he elsewhere adds, " there is but one saw-mill on the 
Spanish end of the island, near St. Domingo city, and that not now 
in operation." 

These facts indicate, very clearly, that African Evangelization 
has made but little progress in Hayti. Now that Spain has taken 
possession of the Spanish part of the island, it remains doubtful 
whether Protestant missions will be tolerated therein ; and should 
France reclaim the other portion, the whole island may become 
closed to the Protestant missionary. 

6. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in the British West 
India Islands. 

While it Avas believed that the Christianization of the blacks 
was impracticable under slavery, there were good reasons why 
British Christians should use all lawful means to have that hin- 
drance to the Gospel removed. This was 'a moral duty which 
the P)ritish subject, as a Christian, could not overlook. Under 
this view of the question, emancipation became a necessity. But 
the view was founded in a misconception. Time has shown, that 



144 PULPIT POLITICS. 

it was not the condition of servitude whicli hindered the Gospel 
among the bhicks in the West Indies. Indeed, as in the case of 
the Wesleyan mission in Jamaica, emancipation was not every- 
where followed by a corresponding efficiency in the mission work ; 
but, on the contrary, in a few years grievous backslidings occurred, 
and the population became less inclined than before to yield them- 
selves to religious control.* 

' The rise of the mission work in these islands, and its progress 
during the period of slavery, is noticed quite fully in Chapter I. 
Some references are made to the results down to the present 
date ; but the main facts occurring since emancipation were left 
to be used in this contrast. To that task we now proceed. 

More information has come into our possession, relative to mis- 
sionary operations in the West Indies, from American than from 
British sources. The American testimony is all from anti-slavery 
authorities, and may, therefore, be considered as reliable in refer- 
ence to the questions it is brought to sustain. The details are 
more extensive than we could wish, but they better represent the 
facts than if more condensed. In adopting this plan, we are able 
to employ the language of the Associations quoted, and can thus 
avoid the charge of not being sufficiently full in the particulars. 

First, we shall notice the mission of the Associate Synod in 
Trinidad. This mission is the more interesting, because it was 
attempted by the Church which first pronounced slaveholding a 
sin. This term, sin, was used as early as 1808, in reference to 
slaveholding, by one of the Presbyteries which constituted this 
Synod.f 

The Associate Synod, at its meeting in Philadelphia, 1843, 
appointed missionaries to Trinidad, who soon after set sail for 
that island. The incipient steps towards establishing this mis- 
sion had been taken in 1841. They chose Savanne Grande as 
the place of their operations, where they erected a church and a 
dwelling-house, and the mission was for some time in successful 
operation. The death of one of the missionaries, the year fol- 
lowing, required the appointment of another to supply his place. 
He, however, remained- but a short time in the field, having felt 

* See Chapter I. t See Chapter VII. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 145 

it to be his duty to return. The other missionary returned with 
him, leaving the mission vacant; but he was reappointed, and 
resumed his labors. In 1847, a gentleman and his wife were 
added to the mission, as teachers. In 1848, the missionary again 
presented himself before the Synod, a vote approving his labors 
was passed, and he once more returned to his work. The Synod 
had resolved to increase the mission, but the mission board were 
unsuccessful in obtaining the services of another missionary. In 
the mean time, the teachers returned, leaving the devoted mission- 
ary alone upon the field, who, in consequence of ill-health, ob- 
tained leave to return, after the expiration of six months. No 
missionaries being obtained to succeed him, he left the field, com- 
mitting his charge to the care of a Scotch missionary, residing 
seven miles distant. It Avas not until June, 1851, that another 
missionary set sail for Trinidad, accompanied by his wife, and a 
female assistant, as a teacher ; but he returned in the same year, 
leaving the mission, as before, under the care of the Scotch mis- 
sionary. In 1853, the Synod placed the mission under the care 
of this Scotch brother, who labored in it until sometime the next 
year, when he came to the United States, after placing the mission 
under the oversight of another Scotch missionary, who could only 
render it occasional services. The mission being thus left entirely 
destitute, with the exception of the little attention the Scotch 
missionary could render, the Synod, in 1855, transferred the mis- 
sion to the Free Church of Scotland, with a donation of four 
hundred dollars, annexing, as a condition, that it might be resumed 
again, by Synod, at any future time. It was not, however, until 
November, 1856, that a missionary could be obtained; when one 
was sent out, but who, after laboring with encouragement until 
near the close of the last year, was compelled, from failure of 
health, to leave his field of labor. * 

" This mission has been an exceedingly expensive one to the Asso- 
ciate Synod. It has met with many reverses, and experienced severe 
trials, but it is believed to have exerted a most happy influence, and 
has not been without special tokens of the Divine favor." f 

* The facts, in this last case, arc taken from the Christian Instructor, May 
15, 1861. 

t This statement with the exception referred to in the last footnote, is con- 

10 



146 PULPIT POLITICS. 

It was the privilege of the author to listen to the explanations 
of some of the missionaries who returned from Trinidad. The 
greatest obstacle to success, which they had to encounter, was the 
unsettled state of the population. Emancipation left the people 
without fixed homes, or any certainty of constant employment in 
the same situation. The hearers of a sermon on one Sabbath, 
were often out of the r^ach of the preacher on the next. Con- 
gregations of listeners could be readily gathered, but could not 
bo retained together. The low wages offered for labor, by the 
planters, had little fascination for the new-born freeman, who 
rioted in his liberty to run where he listed. What was true of 
the efforts to sustain congregations, was true, also, of the attempt 
to establish schools. But this unstable condition of things, seems 
likely to terminate in a few years. The necessities of existence 
inevitably force population into positions where bread can be 
made most secure. Where the soil, and not the chase, yields the 
means of subsistence, people must find fixed homes as soon as 
they become crowded. This has long been true as to Barbadoes 
and Antigua.* The large influx of coolies, imported into Trini- 
dad, to supply the deficiency of labor resulting from emancipation, 
is fast tending to concentrate the colored people of that island 
also, by lessening their chances to squat at will over the island. 
Thus far the mission of the Associate Church, in Trinidad, has 
accomplished but little, except to prove the error of that Church 
as to the advantages of emancipation in promoting the conversion 
of the negroes 

It was most foi'tunate that this denomination undertook a mis- 
sion in the West Indies. Its ministry and people are of the best 
in the Christian Church. Their family discipline is rigid, and 
religious instruction made imperative. At an early day, the 
Synod took decided action against slavery, and, ultimately, dis- 
engaged itself from all connection with slaveholders. In com- 
mon with the prevailing American sentiment, its people placed a 
high estimate upon human freedom; and, falling in with the 

densed from the Church Memorial, 1858, a volume published under the patron- 
age of the United Presbyterian Church, into which the Associate Synod is now 
merged. 

* See Chapter V., for full particulars. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 147 

British theories — or importing them, rather, as the ministers 
were mostly from Scotland and Ireland — they considered slavery 
as antagonistic to the progress of the Gospel. Having placed 
themselves, by their ecclesiastical legislation, in a position which 
rendered it impossible for them any longer to approach the colored 
man in slavery, they resolved to reach him where he I'eveled in 
freedom. But the Trinidad mission brought them into contact 
with the negro, as a barbarian. Wrenched by force from the 
midst of African barbarism, he had made but little advancement 
under British slavery, except to learn the English language. One 
generation had succeeded another, without the lights of civiliza- 
tion having penetrated their darkened understandings. The mis- 
sionaries, therefore, found the barbarism of the population a much 
more stubborn element to subdue than had been anticipated. It 
was the first foreign mission that this Church had attempted ; and, 
consequently, its missionaries had but little experience in relation 
to the difficulties connected with attempts to control the wills of 
savage men. The mission was projected only three years after 
the emancipation of the slaves, and the work was begun exactly 
at the moment when the Jamaica missionaries found the popula- 
tion most difficult to control. It now reports six converts. 

This mission has done but little toward African evangelization. 
It is at present, (October, 1861,) destitute of a missionary. 

The American Missionary Association have a mission in 
Jamaica. The mission is occupied mainly with labor in behalf 
of the emancipated colored people of that island. It Avas com- 
menced by five Congregational ministers, who sailed from New 
York in the fall of 1839 — the year following the final emancipa- 
tion of the blacks. They went to Jamaica with the expectation 
of receiving a moderate support from the emancipated people 
themselves ; but in this they were disappointed, and as there was 
then no missionary society in the United States that could under- 
take the support of a mission there, they were reduced to circum- 
stances of distressing privation. They, too, had formed no just 
conception of the work before them. A committee was organized 
of gentlemen residing in New York and New England, called the 
West India Missionary Committee, who received and forwarded 
contributions for this mission, but without undertaking its support. 



148 PULPIT POLITICS. 

In 1847, the mission was transferred to the AiMerican Missionary 
Association, under whose care it remains. In 1843, the mission- 
aries formed a Congregational Association, under the name of the 
Jamaica Congregational Association ; and the mission is now 
known in the island, as the American Congregational Mission. * 

This mission, in 1858, is represented as embracing 12 stations, 
7 missionaries, 2 male assistants, 13 female assistants, 4 native 
assistants, 8 churches, 433 members, and 716 scholars. The full 
details can be found in the Encjclopredia of Missions, from which 
we quote. 

Turning from the statements in the Encyclopaedia, to the reports 
of the American Missionary Association itself, f much light is 
derived in relation to the moral condition of the people of Jamaica. 
In its seventh Annual Report, 1853, page 30, it is said : 

" One of our missionaries, in giving a description of the moral con- 
dition of the people of Jamaica, after speaking of the licentiousness 
which they received as a legacy from those who denied them the pure 
joys of holy wedlock, and trampled upon and scourged chastity, as if 
it were a fiend to be driven out from among men — that enduring 
legacy, which, with its foul, pestilential influence, still blights, like 
the mildew of death, every thing in society that should be lovely, 
virtuous, and of good report ; and alluding to their intemperance, in 
which they have followed the example set by the governor in his 
palace, the bishop in his robes, statesmen and judges, lawyers and 
doctors, planters and overseers, and even professedly Christian min- 
isters ; and the deceit and falsehood which oppression and wrong 
always engender, says : 'It must not be forgotten that we are following 
in the wake of the accursed system of slavery — a system that unmahes 
man, by warring upon his conscience, and crushing his spirit, leaving 
naught but the shattered wrecks of humanity behind it. If we may 
but gather up some of these floating fragments, from which the image 
of God is well nigh effaced, and pilot them safely into that better 
land, we shall not have labored in vain. But we may hope to do more. 
The chief fruit of our labors is to be sought in the future, rather than 
in the present.' It should be remembered, too, (continues the Re- 
port,) that there is but a small part of the population yet brought 
within the reach of the influence of enlightened Christian teachers, 

* Encyclopaedia of Missions, 1858, page 773. 

t This Association is strictly an Abolition Institution. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 149 

while the great mass by whom they arc surrounded are but little 
removed from actual heathenism." Another missionary, page 33, 
says, it is the opinion of all intelligent Christian men, that " nothing 
save the furnishing of the people with ample means of education and 
religious instruction will save them from relapsing into a state of 
barbarism." And another, page 36, in speaking of certain eases of 
discipline, for the highest form of crime, under the seventh com- 
mandment, says; "There is nothing in public sentiment to save the 
youth of Jamaica in this respect." 

The Report, near its close, says : 

" For most of the adult population of Jamaica, the unhappy vic- 
tims of long years of oppression and degradation, our missionaries 
have great fear. Yet for even these there may be hope, even though 
with trembling. But it is around the youth of the island that their 
brightest hopes and anticipations cluster ; from them they expect to 
gather their principal sheaves for the great Lord of the harvest." 

The American 31issionary, a monthly paper, and organ of this 
Association, for July, 1855, has the following quotation from the 
letters of the missionaries, recently received, in further confirma- 
tion of the moral condition of the colored people of Jamaica: 

" From the number of churches and chapels in the island, Jamaica 
ought certainly to be called a Christian land. The people may be 
called a church-going people. There are chapels and places of wor- 
ship enough, at least in this part of the island, to supply the people 
if every station of our mission were given up. And there is no lack 
of ministers and preachers. As far as I am acquainted, almost the 
entire adult population profess to have a hope of eternal life, and I 
think the larger part are connected with churches. In view of such 
facts, some have been led to say, ' The spiritual condition of the pop- 
ulation is very satisfactory.' But there is another class of facts that 
is perfectly astounding. With all this array of the externals of 
religion, one broad, deep wave of moral death rolls over the land. 
A man may be a drunkard, a liar, a Sabbath-breaker, a profane man, 
a fornicator, an adulterer, and such like — and be known to be such — 
and go to chapel, and hold up his head there, and feel no disgrace 
from these things, because they are so common as to create a public 
sentiment in his favor. He may go to the communion table, and 



150 PULPIT POLITICS. 

cherish a hope of heaven, and not have his hope disturbed. I might 
tell of persons guilty of some, if not all, these things, ministering in 
holy things." 

Coming down to a later date, we find the report of the Associ- 
ation, for 1858, giving the membership of its West India Mis- 
sions as 308, in the four principal stations — the other three sta- 
tions not being reported. Again, in 1860, the membership, in all 
the stations, one excepted, is given as 404, and the whole num- 
ber of scholars in the week-day schools, one out-station excepted, 
as 450. 

The report of 1858, in noticing the progress of the missions, 
in two of the stations, says that the advices from the missionary 
affirms, " that no satisfactory advance has been made during the 
past year, either in educational or spiritual things ; " and then 
quotes from him as follows : 

" We trust there is a remnant here, a church within the church, 
through and by whom God can work. The feio yet left of those who 
during the darkness of slavery received and followed the truth as 
they understood it, and who follow it still as the light shines clearer ; 
the few who were truly converted in the great ingatherings into the 
Church at and just after emancipation ; and a few of those who from 
time to time have been admitted of late years — these are the hopes 
of Jamaica. They are the salt of the land, notwithstanding their 
light, it may be, is dim, their strength but feeble, and much dross 
may be mixed with the gold." 

Another quotation is made, from the missionary at a third sta- 
tion, as follows : 

'■'• A few weeks ago I commenced having inquiry meetings, and the 
number that attend has gradually increased, until this week twenty- 
six were present In the little meetings which we hold among 

the people, the truth seems to take effect We see some indi- 
cations of the Holy Spirit among the people Only a few of 

the Church members appear to understand the part Christians have 

to do in gathering souls into the kingdom of God I am often 

made to feel that the musses will go down to eternal death. We are 
stimulated to labor and do what we can, and we find promises in the 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 151 

Word of God that cause us to hope that our labors will be blessed 
in saving souls." 

From the fourth and fifth stations, another writes : 

" The statistical table shows, that in these two churches the past 
has been a dry year. Happily the other churches of the mission 
have been more blessed, although throughout Jamaica generally, 
spiritual deadness seems to prevail in as marked a manner as at pres- 
ent spiritual activity in the churches of our native land. With a 
grade of moral culture so vastly below that of the churches of Amer- 
ica, I do not believe that we could reasonably expect a movement 
like that; but the Spirit of God knows how to move on all hearts, 
barbarian and civilized, and I would fain hope that our brethren at 
home rejoice in this favored time, and will not forget to pray that 
the good work may spread into other lands. The progress of the 
people in outward prosperity has been quite encouraging during the 
past year." 

The 1-leport of 1860 mentions several encouraging features con- 
nected with these missions, and some, also, that are discouraging. 
A quotation from one of the missionaries shoves, that correct 
views are forcing themselves upon his mind. He says : 

" Whatever may be true in other places, I am convinced that it is 
the sheerest folly to think of upholding missionary operations here, 
without giving an active support, in one way or another, to relig- 
iously-conducted schools. The government ought to care for this, 
and, very meagerly it does so ; but what it leaves undone must be 
supplied by Christian zeal, here and abroad, except so far as the peo- 
ple can be persuaded to do it themselves ; and they do not now value 
education sufficiently to lay any very heavy tax upon themselves in 
support of it." 

From another station, during this year, I860, comes this lan- 
guage, as contained in the report : 

" From what we observe in our neighborhood, and from what we 
hear from other parts, I do think we may say the day dawneth. 
There are some unmistakable signs of improvement. A-^ery much 
that is lamentable and reproachful still remains, but no candid, thor- 
ough observer can speak of Jamaica now otherwise than hopeful." 



152 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The report on the Jamaica mission closes with this paragraph, 
explanatory of the relative condition of the crowded and pro- 
ductive population of Barbadoes and the squatter farmers of 
Jamaica : 

" Some extracts have been published in the American Missionary^ 
from the communications of the correspondent of the Times, forming 
a perfect vindication of the people of Jamaica, from the slanderous 
charges that have been brought against them, and proving that the 
emancipated people and their descendants in Jamaica do work as 
diligently as those of Barbadoes; but for themselves, on their own 
freeholds, instead of for the planter on his estate. Wisdom is justi- 
fied of her children. In Jamaica, as elsewhere, God has demon- 
strated that it is safe, even for man's pecuniary interest, to obey 
God, and refrain from injustice." 

It must be remembered, that the whole of the preceding quo- 
tations come from the same body of men, writing at different 
dates, and having different objects to accomplish, at the different 
times their pens were employed. It is no part of our duty to 
reconcile any seeming discrepancies. But, as in accord with 
what they have said, and as indicating one of the sources of 
" the slanderous charges " referred to, it may be well to give, 
in connection with what has been quoted above, a few extracts 
from the Annual Report of the American and Foreign Anti- 
Slavery Society, for 1853, which discoursed thus, in its own 
language, and in quotations which it endorsed.* It is the lan- 
guage of American Abolitionists, going out under the sanction 
of their annual reports : 

" The friends of emancipation in the United States have been dis- 
appointed in some respects at the results in the West Indies, because 
they expected too much. A nation of slaves can not at once be con- 
verted into a nation of intelligent, industrious, and moral freemen." 

" It is not too much, even now, to say of the people of 

Jamaica, their condition is exceedingly degraded, their mor- 
als woefully corrupt. But this must, by no means, be understood to 
be of universal application. With respect to those who have been 
brought under a healthful educational and religious influence, it is 

* Page 170. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 153 

)iot trice. But as respects tlie great mass, whose liumanity has been 
ground out of them by cruel oppression — whom no good Samaritan 
hand has yet reached — how could it be otherwise? We wish to 
turn the tables; to supplant oppression by righteousness, insult by 
compassion and brotherly kindness, hatred and contempt by love and 
winning meekness, until we allure these wretched ones to the hope 

and enjoyment of manhood and virtue." * " The means of 

education and religious instruction are better enjoyed, although but 
little appreciated and improved by the great mass of the people. It 
is also true, that the moral sense of the people is becoming somewhat 
enlightened But while this is true, yet their moral condi- 
tion is very far from being what it ought to be It is exceed- 
ingly dark and distressing. Licentiousness prevails to a most alarm- 
ing extent among the people The almost universal prevalence 

of intemperance is another prolific source of the moral darkness and 
degradation of the people. The great mass, among all classes of the 
inhabitants, from the governor in his palace to the peasant in his 
hut— from the bishop in his gown to the beggar in his rags — are 
all slaves to their cups." f 

This is truly a dark picture of the moral degradation of the 
West India black population. But it comes from the pens of 
Abolitionists, who expect the Christian world to accept their 
assertions as true. Being themselves the prime promoters of 
abolition, they, of course, must be allowed to announce the results 
of their own policy. Such declarations, however, as to the moral 
gloom overshadowing the West Indies, should be taken Avith some 
allowance, on account of the peculiar position occupied by the 
missionaries who make the reports. Their honesty of intention, 
and devotion to their work, none will doubt; but they belong to 
an organization preeminently partizan in its character, and dis- 
tinguished for the strength of its zeal in behalf of abolition theo- 
ries. This association was based, by its founders, upon the 
assumption, that all existing denominations tolerated sin ■ — tole- 
rated the use of tobacco, intoxicating drinks, slavery, caste, and 
polygamy — and that a pure Church was necessary to the uni- 
versal success of the Gospel. The element of Christian charity, 

® Extract from the report of a missionary, quoted in the R.eport, page 172. 
t Extract from the report of another missionary, page 171, of the Report. 



154 PULPIT POLITICS. 

in its exercise towzird other professors of religion, exists in that 
body in a much less degree, it is feared, than the spirit of hatred 
of all who will not accept their claims to preeminent holiness, and 
their divine commission to dictate laws to the civil as well as the 
ecclesiastical world.-'- 

But notwithstanding the high pretensions of the American 
Missionary Association, they have not succeeded any better than 
other missionary societies, in lifting the heathen out of their bar- 
baric darkness. The Holy Spirit has not descended in any 
greater power upon their missions than upon others; and they 
apologize to the world for their failures, by assigning, as a rea- 
son for their want of success, that slavery is accountable for the 
results — that the Gospel is powerless where the black man has 
been reduced to a " chattel "' by the Avliite man. Now, if this 
has been the true cause of their impotency among the African 
race, where slavery to the whites has prevailed ; all they have 
to do, to insure success, is to transfer their labors to Africa, 
where barbarism, in its uncorruptedncss, holds undisputed sway. 

This experiment, fortunately, they have tried, and the results 
in Africa, where the white man, to use a favorite abolition phrase, 
has not " reduced the negro to the condition of a chattel," can 
now be compared with those in the West Indies. And what does 
this comparison show ? Have patience, reader, and you shall see. 

The American Missionary Association established a mission, in 
connection with the return of the Amistad Africans, a-t Kaw- 
Mendi, in Africa, in 1842 ; only four years after emancipation in 
the West Indies, and three years later than the origin of tlieir 
mission in Jamaica. The reports of the earlier years of the 
Mendi Mission, are details of trials, sufferings, and deaths, among 
the missionaries ; arising from the fatality of the climate, the 
untutored savageism of the natives, and the frequency of the 
wars of the hostile tribes. Encouraging seasons often sprung up, 
succeeded by disappointments calculated to sadden the hea/its of 
the truly zealous missionaries. The Report of the Association 
for 1858 gives the extent of the mission as embracing three sta- 
tions and seven out-stations ; but neither that report nor the one 

* See the resolutions of the Chicago clergymen, Chapter XL, for a specimen 
of the claims set up by abolition clergymen. 



MISSIONS UNDER FKEEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 155 

for 1860, * present any statistics, in tabular form, of the member- 
ship of tlieir churches. Some details, however, are given in the 
extracts from the letters of the missionaries, which are of great 
interest, when taken in connection with similar facts in the mis- 
sions of other denominations in Africa. It seems to be a settled 
question, in missionary operations among the blacks, that little 
success, in their moral elevation, can be hoped for, excepting 
where the children are separated from their parents., and taken 
into the families of the missionaries. Where this is impracticable, 
the natives may dwell along-side of the missions, or the civilized 
colonists, and still retain all their heathenism of mind and soul. 
" So the natives of Cape Palmas have lived, in the very midst of 
the colonists, for some twenty years, and they are the same people 
still, with almost no visible change." f The controlling influence 
of the superior race seems essential to the inferior, to impart the 
moral courage necessary to resist surrounding temptations. Un- 
restrained by the white man, the black falls an easy prey to the 
vices of his heathenish neighbors. The proximity of the barbar- 
ous man to the civilized, without proper moral control, results in 
the former copying the vices of the latter, rather than his virtues. 
It is for reasons such as these, that African missions seem to pro- 
gress so slowly ; and that some, hitherto hopeful as to African 
evangelization, are now almost despairing of the possibility of 
subjecting the population of Africa to the laws of Christian 
morality. 

The American Missionary Association have been operating in 
Africa almost twenty years. A reference to the statistics of its 
West India mission, which was begun twenty-two years since, 
shows, that its church members, and the pupils in its schools, in 
that field of labor, are so few in number as to prove a great source 
of discouragement to the missionaries. Indeed, setting out with 
the high pretensions made by the Association, the results may be 
considered as almost a failure — attributed, by them, as we have 
seen, to the preexistence of slavery upon the ground. But the 
results in Africa have been still more discouraging. How is this 

* We have not that of 1859 at hand. 

t Report of Bishop Scott, of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United 
States, in relation to his visit to the missions of Liberia. 



156 PULPIT POLITICS. 

to be accounted for? Is the difficulty inherent in the African 
race, sunk as it has been, for thousands of years, in the darkest 
barbarism? Or can it be, that the Association, with its mission- 
aries, hold opinions so much at variance with the Gospel — em- 
ploy themselves so much with side issues about human rights, 
to the neglect of the salvation of human souls — that the Great 
Head of the Church refuses to make them the honored instruments 
in the evangelization of the African race ? 

But let us examine the results of the African missions of the 
Asssociation. From Good Hope station, in 1858, the missionary 
wrote : 

" Twenty-five children live under my roof, and receive daily school 

instruction Our out-school is taught in the chapel by a 

man from Sierra Leone, and numbers over twenty scholars 

Our sabbath-school for a long time was attended only by the children 
in the mission family, but now we have about fifty scholars, and three- 
quarters of them can read in the Bible, and they understand English 

quite well Our congregation numbers about one hundred 

and fifty Our prayer-meetings are pretty well attended, 

and we have a few people with us, who are, we think, true Christians. 

Though we do not see the people flocking to Christ, and 

are not able to report a great ingathering of converts, still the truth 
is doing its work, and is like leaven, aflfecting the whole community." 

The station at KaAv-Mcndi, says the Report for 1858, is less 
encouraging. The missionary, above quoted, thus writes in rela- 
lation to this station : 

" I removed Mr. Jowett, our native teacher at Kaw-Mendi, to this 
place, (Good Hope,) some six months since, because I had no teacher 
for the out-school here. He met with very little encouragement 
there. For a long time after I returned from America, he had but 
ten scholars. Afterward it increased to thirteen. Seven of these 
were supported by the mission. The people there manifested a great 

deal of indifi'erence about the school Father Johnson is 

as suitable a person to have charge of the meetings at Kaw-Mendi, 
and watch over the few church members, as any one we could find. 
There are not more than five or six persons there whom Father John- 
son and Mr. Jowett think give evidence of conversion." 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 157 

From Boom Falls station, the only remaining one under the 
care of the Association, the missionary thus writes, as copied in 
the Report : 

" Some of the boys are, to all appearances, loving the Lord ! 

Eight of them are now anxious about their souls 

The family at Mo-Tappan house has been increased during the year. 

We have now fourteen boys and four girls Our family is 

a very pleasant one, and for it I entertain high hopes. Some of its 
members are hopefully pious." 

The Board closes its Report on its African missions, character- 
istically, by speaking in strong terms of reprobation against the 
colonization of Africa from the United States — thus still exhibit- 
ing their hostility to the American Colonization Society. 

The Report for 1860, in speaking of Good Hope station, says : 

" The formation of the Church at Good Hope was reported last year. 
At its close it numbered eighteen members. Two new members had 
been added in April. Our Sabbath-school is gradually increasing in 
numbers. We now have between sixty and seventy." 

In May six new members were added to the Church, two by 
letter, and four on profession of their faith, from the mission school. 
The mission school numbers twenty-five scholars, all of whom are 
wholly under the care of the mission. 

" Their proficiency in ordinary studies has been all that could have 
been reasonably expected, and their acquaintance with the Bible and 
its precious truths, is such as might well put to shame thousands 
brought up in a Christian land with the advantages of Sabbath-school 

and sanctuary privileges The out-school now numbers 

over thirty scholars." 

A new station established, had been attacked by a war party 
and robbed of its movable effects. 

The report for 1860, thus speaks of the Boom Falls station : 

" The church at Mo-Tappan, that numbered fourteen at our last 
report, numbered twenty-four the first of January, six having been 
baptized and added to it at the last preceding communion 



158 PULl'lT POLITIC.?. 

Regular Sabbath services, generally preaching, were held in eight 
different places. A school was taught during the week at the station, 
and three small out-schools, under the care of native teachers, in as 
many different towns." 

The missionary, and three of his native assistants, were con- 
stantly engaged in itinerant missionary labor, each in turn leav- 
ing the mission on Monday morning, and returning on Saturday 
evening, A small school has been commenced at another station. 
The missionaries consider the country as fully opened to mission- 
ary labor, and plead most urgently to their friends at home to 
send forth more laborers into that part of the moral vineyard of 
the Lord. 

But while the missionaries express themselves as very hopeful 
as to the future, it is apparent, from the facts given in the Report 
of the Association, that the African mission has been even less 
successful than the one in Jamaica; and that, therefore, slavery 
can not be fairly chargeable with the failures in the West Indies. 
On the contrary. West India slavery, like that of the United 
States, had prepared the blacks for the more ready acceptance of 
the Gospel, by having trained them in the use of the English 
language — the want of which, in Africa, being a great obstacle 
to missionary success. 

The truth is, the American Missionary Association has had much 
to learn in relation to the real condition of the barbarous inhabitants 
of Africa. They set out wnth false notions, and have had to reap 
the fruits of their errors. Cherishing bitter prejudices against 
the slaveholder, they could not say too many extravagant things 
in reprobation of slavery. Ignoring the Providence of God in 
that great movement which transferred millions of barbarians into 
contact with civilized men, they could only see, in the movement, 
the cruelties and oppressions of the agents who were permitted 
to perform the work. Like professional philanthropists, in gen- 
eral, they based their action on a single idea, and repudiated with 
indignation every fact that would not sustain their theory. Ex- 
pecting that their claims to superior sanctity Avould be endorsed 
in heaven, they felt confident that the Holy Spirit, in Pentecostal 
abundance, would be out-poured upon their labors, so that, soon, the 
heathen would be given to them for an inheritance, and the utter- 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 159 

most parts of the eartli for a possession. Are tlieir pretensions 
and expectations over-estimated? Listen to the hmguage of 
their Report for 1858 — remembering that they have charged, by 
implication at least, all other ecclesiastical organizations with 
tolerating sin : 

" The Gospel is to be taught and preached ; the tcliole Gospel — not 
an emasculated Gospel ; not such portions only of the true Gospel as 
men are willing to receive. The Gospel is to be inculcated upon ' all 
nations ' — the accessible part of every nation ; not a selected nation, 
or selected portions of a nation merely, where it is easy, convenient, 
and safe. Not alone in China, in Hindostan, in the islands of the 
sea, ill the free States of the American Union, but in all countries ; 
in the slave States as well as in the free States ; among the Indian 
tribes, not omitting the Choctaw and Cherokee nations. They also 
are to have a full, unadulterated, free Gospel preached to them. 

"Among the slaves and the slaveholders, the Gospel, as it came 
from its divine founder, is to be preached without concealment or 
compromise. Wherever God opens the way, it is to be preached, and 
preached faithfully, whether human enactments authorize or forbid 
it. ' The field is the vrorld.' It belongs to Christ, and his word is 
not bound. His followers are to remember that his commands con- 
stitute the ' higher law ; ' that they are to be obeyed at all hazards, 
and if human enactments come in conflict with the divine statutes, 
human enactments are to be trampled under feet. They are not to 
be resisted by force of arms, but simply disoheyed Nothing- 
is to be taught as the Gospel which is not a part of it The 

Christian teacher, be he a minister, Sabbath-school teacher, mission- 
ary, colporteur, editor, or private Christian, is to go forth in the name 
of the Great Captain of his salvation, among his fellow-men, among 
gainsayers, opposers, enemies of truth, and ' lower law ' men, wher- 
ever he has opportunity, as a soldier of the cross, faithful to his 
marching orders : ' Thou shalt say unto them. Thus saith the Lord 
God : Be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though 
briars and thorns be with thee and thou dost dwell among scorpions ; 
be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though 
they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak my words unto 

them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear ' 

' speaking the truth in love.' 

" It was in view of these truths, and under a full persuasion that 
they had been grievously overlooked, that the American Missionary 



IGO PULPIT POLITICS. 

Association was organized. Its founders deeply felt the necessity of 
a new missionary organization ; one that would aim to bring about 
the development of the mind and heart of Christ in the Church, in 
missionary societies, in the religious institutions of the country, and 
would send forth missionaries at home and abroad, to preach a free, 
an evangelical, an anti-slavery Gospel ; a Gospel that made no com- 
promise with sin ; that had no complicity with caste, polygamy, or 
slaveholding; that would fearlessly and perseveringly, in the name 
and spirit of Jesus Christ, proclaim freedom^ peace, temperance, holi- 
ness, the equality of man before the law, and the impartial love of 
God. 

" Believing that they were led by the Great Head of the Church, 
and recognizing the unmistakable hand of Providence in their earli- 
est movements, they formed the Association, promulgated their prin- 
ciples, solicited funds, appointed missionaries, and embarked in the 
great undertaking of publishing in this and other lands what they 
understood to be the true Gospel, and carrying out its holy and evan- 
gelical principles, as God should give them ability, the means, and 

opportunity On all fit occasions, without considering the 

Association an anti-slavery society, we have not hesitated to proclaim, 
as became a missionary institution, the anti-slavery character of the 
Association, and its agreement with an anti-slavery Gospel. We are 
anti-slavery, because we deem slaveholding a great obstruction to the 
conversion of the world." 

This will serve to convey a clear idea of the pretensions and 
expectations of this Association. The results of their missionary- 
efforts, assuredly, do not meet their anticipations. Their experi- 
ments, however, have a very important bearing, as the effects 
resulting therefrom cast much light upon a very important ques- 
tion. Acknowledging the want of success among the adult pop- 
ulation of Jamaica, the missionaries assume that slavery so 
thoroughly " unmakes man," that the Gospel can not prevail in 
its " wake." Passing over to Africa itself, no better success 
attends their labors. Why, then, do they not acknowledge their 
error, and attribute the inefficiency of their missions to the true 
cause — the deep mental and moral degradation of the African 
race, where they are not subjected to proper restraints and care- 
fully instructed by a civilized people. 

It has already been remarked, that some allowance, perhaps, 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 161 

should be made in considering the testimony borne by the Amer- 
ican Missionary Association, in relation to the missions of the 
other denominations in Jamaica, on account of the peculiar views 
held by that society. The use of spirituous liquors and tobacco 
are viewed as sinful, or at least so inconsistent with Christianity, 
that those who use them are considered unfit to assume the 
offices of religious teachers, and none such are commissioned by 
the Executive Committee of the Association.* In speaking so 
disparagingly of their neighbor missionaries, in the West Indies, 
this society, of course, include, among the sins tolerated by others, 
the use of tobacco and rum — thus undertaking to decide a ques- 
tion properly belonging to the medical profession, whether nar- 
cotics and stimulants may not be essential to health in tropical 
climates. Making allowance, then, for whatever of prejudice 
may have influenced the judgments of the missionaries, in report- 
ing on the present moral condition of the mission churches in the 
West Indies, belonging to other denominations, we are to remem- 
ber that, as they are men of truth, there may be some founda- 
tion for the charges made. But if the charges do approximate 
the truth, then the emancipation of the blacks has not produced 
the favorable moral advancement which was expected to follow 
that measure. 

This point demands careful examination. By referring to 
Chapter L, it will be seen that, during slavery, where no oppo- 
sition prevailed, very encouraging success accompanied the labors 
of the missionaries of all denominations, in both the English and 
Danish islands ; and yet, notwithstanding this, we are now asked 
to believe that the colored population of these islands, since 
emancipation, are almost wholly inaccessible to the Gospel. If 
this be true, the logical inference from the fact is, that a state 
of freedom is less favorable to the evangelization of the African 
race than a state of slavery. Are the American Missionary As- 
sociation not aware, that their testimony very strongly corrobo- 
rates the testimony of Southern slaveholders — that the moral 
advancement of the negro progresses much more rapidly under 
slavery than under freedom ? The falling ofl" in the number of 



* See 14th Annual Report, 1860, p. 62. 
11 



162 PULPIT POLITICS. 

cliurch members, in the "West India missions, heretofore noticed, 
which occurred a few years after emancipation, may also be cited 
as sustaining the views held by the missionaries of the Associa- 
tion — that the present condition of the freedmen of the West 
Indies is exceedingly unfavorable to the success of the Gospel. 
But as the missions conducted during slavery, when undisturbed, 
were very successful, the present w\ant of success can not be a 
consequence of the preexistence of slavery, but must be attrib- 
uted, as heretofore suggested, to another cause — the want of 
proper moral control over the negroes. 

If nothing more, then, has been done, by this attempt of the 
American Missionary Association, to propagate an anti-slavery 
Gospel, this, at least, has been determined : that circumstances 
have existed, under which slavery was more conducive to xifri- 
can evangelization than freedom. This is an important fact ; 
and the slave may Avell rejoice at the result, as, hereafter, it must 
not be claimed that emancipation shall precede all efforts for his 
conversion, and he be left without the means of salvation until 
his freedom is secured. 

But to return to the West Indies. An examination, a little 
more in detail, of the results of missionary labors in the West 
Indies, before and after emancipation, will be useful in forming 
a judgment upon this question — the cfiects of slavery upon the 
African race, in reference to their conversion to Christianity. 

It will be observed, in the preceding pages, that the member- 
ship in the Moravian missions, in the Danish islands, during the 
ninety years ending in 1832 — that is, the number of persons 
baptized during that period — was 37,000 ; in Antigua, during the 
fifty years preceding 1823, the number of converts, young and 
old, was 16,099 ; in Jamaica, in 1804, the number that had been 
baptized was 938 ; and in St. Kitts, in 1800, the converts were 
estimated at 2,000 — making a total of 56,000. This is an unu- 
sual mode of presenting statistics, but they are not accessible in 
any other form ; nor could they be obtained for later dates, so 
as to exhibit the results of the Moravian missions up to the 
period of emancipation. 

The statistics of the English Wesleyan missions, in the West 
Indies, have not been obtained to any important extent, for the 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 163 

period preceding emancipation ; but six years afterward, 1844, 
their membersliip was, in Jamaica alone, 26,585 ; and in St. Vin- 
cent, in 1794, it was over 1,000. From the other islands we 
have no returns for this slavery period. This 26,585, in Jamaica, 
may be taken as representing the whole membership. 

The Baptist missions, in Jamaica alone, had a membership, in 
1831, of 10,838, and in 1841, of 27,706. 

These statistics do not include all the missions, and yet they 
foot up 94,400, as the probable number of converts, under slavery, 
within the islands named. * 

Here, now, was the basis upon which the missions, after eman- 
cipation, had to operate. It was a very different foundation, 
indeed, from that upon which the first missionaries to these islands 
had to build. They began with a population who had never heard 
the Gospel, and many of whom were new imports from Africa — ■ 
the slave trade being then in full activity. In addition to this, 
the planters, mostly, were opposed to the missions, and frequent- 
ly broke them up. The present missions may all be said to 
have had their origin since emancipation, as the circumstances, 
by which they have been surrounded, are entirely different from 
those in which the first missionaries were placed. The planters 
have made no opposition to the missionaries ; and they have had 
the advantage — if advantage it be — of laboring among a popula- 
tion of freemen. Such is the difference in the condition of the 
two classes of missions — the one operating before emancipation 
and the other after the abolition of slavery. 

Let us examine the results : The Wesleyan Methodist Mis- 
sion, in Jamaica, which, six years after emancipation, numbered 
26,585, was reduced, in 1853, to 19,478 — a loss of over 7,000, 
being a decrease of huenfi/seven per cent, during eleveyi years of 
freedom ! 

Later information, in reference to these missions, is contained in 
the proceedings of the English Wesleyan Missionary Society, at 
its anniversary for 1860, but no statistics are given, f They 
speak of Antigua as having improved financially. The St. Vin- 

* See Chapter I., for full particulars. 

t Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, June, 1860. 



164 PULPIT POLITICS. 

cent and Dcmarara district, is represented as containing "eleven 
circuits, in only one of which any increase has taken place during 
the year ; the numbers in all the rest being some^Yhat reduced." 
Of Jamaica they say: 

" Its condition presents at least one hopeful feature, in the steady 
and successful efforts made to reduce the chapel debts, and thus to 
place the financial affairs of the several circuits in a more satisfactory 
position. The members in society do not increase." 

This will be a matter of astonishment to American anti-slavery 
men, of all grades — the members in society, of the zealous Meth- 
odist missionaries, in Jamaica, do not increase ! Already, they 
had been reduced, in 1853, under eleven years of freedom to the 
extent of twenty-seven per cent. ; and still they do not increase ! 

The English Baptists, it will be remembered, were actively 
engaged in the mission work, in Jamaica, during the period of 
slavery, and suffered greatly from the persecution of the planters. 
The Blusionary Magazine, March, 1861, embraces a synopsis of 
the report of a deputation which had visited the Baptist churches 
of Jamaica. The Magazine copies from the London 3Tissionary 
Herald. There are several points made in the Report, a few of 
which we shall notice : 

1. "The prompt, vigorous, and searching discipline usually main- 
tained throughout the churches, whether under the pastorate of 
European or native brethren, and the respect paid to the decisions of 
the church on all matters relating to the spiritual well-being of the 
fellowship. If the number of exclusions is a source of deep regret, 
yet are they clear evidence of the attachment of the churches to 
righteousness and purity. If, in our judgments, the discipline on 
some points is too severe, yet the general effect on the moral tone of 
the community at large, in the repression of superstition, in the 
respect shown to the ordinance of marriage, (which, indeed, yet re 
quires further elevation, in the general estimation of the outside 
population,) has been most valuable." 

2. This point has reference to the tender interest manifested by 
the church, toward those who have been excluded from fellowship. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 165 

3. The delegation express themselves as greatly pleased with 
the devotedness of the deacons and elders, in their care of the 
spiritual interests of the people. 

The membership of the churches, in 1859, as stated by the 
delegation, was 19,360, in the Island of Jamaica. After giving 
some statistics on the subject, it is remarked : 

"It thus appears that while there has been a continuous diminution 
in the number of the churches, there has also been a small but steady 
decrease in the sums contributed to the pastors. At the same time 
the general contributions of those in membership do not appear to 

have become less, but to have increased since 1849 The 

pastors have suffered rather from the diminution in the number of 
their members, than from a decline in their liberality. These facts 
certainly prove that their appeals for assistance are not without a real 
foundation." 

The membership of the Baptists, in 1841, was 27,706. * In 
1859, as above stated, it was 19,360 — a decrease of 8,346 in 
eighteen years, being a loss of thirty per cent. All this decrease 
has occurred under freedom, as the final emancipation took place 
only three years before the year 1841, when the church census 
was taken. In that year, it will be remembered, the churches 
declared themselves independent of the parent society, and became 
self-supporting ; now, they have to appeal to the society for aid, 
and thus manifest their conviction that the Jamaica negroes must 
still be cared for by the white race. 

" The history of the London Missionary Society's operations in 
Jamaica is brief, extending over little more than twenty-five years. 
By the Act of Emancipation, in 1834, eight hundred thousand of our 
fellow-creatures passed from a state of abject and cruel slavery to one 
of comparative freedom, called 'apprenticeship.' This happy change 
afforded greatly increased facilities for usefulness among the agricul- 
tural laborers in the West Indies ; and of these advantages the direc- 
tors promptly availed themselves, anxious to take a part in preparing 
them for the still greater change which would, in a few years, take 
place in their social condition, when they would be put into the full 
possession of their rights and privileges as freemen." 

See Chapter I. 



166 PLLPIT POLITICS. 

Thus diricoui-ses the Missionary 3'Iagazinc, of August, 1881 
The views presented are in accordance "with the British tlieory 
Let us see, then, how the results stand, as compared with mission- 
ary operations among the American slaves. The society sent out 
six missionaries, with their wives, to Jamaica. They had no 
difficulty in finding locations ; and they so selected their positions 
as to form centers from which to operate by means of out-stations. 
Some of the out-stations soon became of sufficient importance to 
induce the directors to send out additional missionaries to occupy 
them ; and the work has progressed, so that, in 1860, the mission 
stands thus : European missionaries 6, native pastors 3, native 
candidates for the ministry 3, native catechists and schoolmasters 
11, Sabbath-school scholars 2,243, day scholars 1,346, church 
members 1,691 — a very small increase, indeed, as compared with 
the accessions of colored members, during the same pei'iod, to the 
churches South. 

The Report of the Boaiid of Foreign Missions of the Mora- 
vians, at the triennial meeting of the Provincial Synod at Beth- 
lehem, Pennsylvania, June, 1858, presents the condition of its 
missions in the West Indies. In eight of these islands — five 
British and three Danish — the Moravians have 38 stations, 104 
missionaries, and 36,441 converts. This does not include the 
missionaries and converts in Tobago, the returns of which are not 
given.* 

Contrasting the present condition of the missions of this church, 
in the West Indies, with what it was during the period of slavery, 
and it is found that they have not held their ground. During 
slavery, their converts could not have been less than 50,000 ; f 
and now they are reduced to 36,441 — a decline, under freedom, 
of 13,559 ! A reported revival during last year has afforded some 
encouragement of better prospects in the future ; but, thus far, 
freedom has done nothing for the greater increase of converts 
among the blacks under the direction of the Moravians. 

Taking, then, the total number of church members, in all the 
missions in the West Indies, as indicated by the reports quoted, 
a.nd the contrast between Slavery and Freedom stands as follows : 

* Ameiicau Christian Record, 18G0. t See Chapter I. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 167 

Under Slavery, the various missionary societies, commencing 
their lahors among the barbarous blacks, gathered more than 
94,400 converts. 

Under Freedom, eight missionary societies, commencing their 
labors with 94,400 converts as a basis, and with freedom upon 
which to progress in their Avork, have increased the converts to 
112,807* — being an actual addition of only 18,407. 

The results of the mission-work in the West Indies, under 
slavery and under freedom, respectively, are now before the 
reader. The statistics for the first period are not complete. They 
are sufficiently full, however, to show that the mere condition of 
slavery was no barrier to African evangelization ; but that the 
checks it received, arose only from tlie hostility of the masters. 
In the estimates for this period, it must be observed, that the four 
years of apprenticeship are included, from 1834 to 1838. This is 
done from necessity, as the statistics are only accessible for the 
dates used ; and, besides, these two periods are properly classified 
together, as the apprenticeship was a system of rigid constraint — 
more so, even, than the slavery which preceded it — the only 
difference being, that the missionaries had uninterrupted access to 
the population. In every other respect, the bondage of the negro 
was as complete as while he was in slavery. Three years of free- 
dom are included in the statistics of the Baptists, and six years 
in those of the Methodists. But as an ofiset to this, the missions, 
under freedom, have had the advantage of all the membership 
gained during slavery. Taking into account, then, all the circum- 

* These Missionary Associations, witli their membership, are as follows: 

DENOMINATIONS. MEMBERS. 

Wesleyans, 48,000 

English Baptists, 19,360 

Church of England, G96 

London Missionary Society, . - _ . _ 4,000 

Moravians, --_-___.. 36,441 

Scotch Presbyterians, 3,900 

American Missionary Association, - . . _ 404 

United Presbyterian Church, U. S., - - - - 6 

Total, 112,807 

A portion of these statistics are from the Encyclopaedia of Missions, 



168 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Stances, it is apparent that the success has been greatest during 
the period of servitude. None of the missions have even main- 
tained the ground gained under slavery. This result disproves 
the theory of the American Missionary Association, that the 
present inaccessibility of the population to the Gospel is due to 
the preexistence of slavery; because, if the missionaries were 
successful in christianizing the blacks while in bondage, the want 
of success under emancipation must be due to some other cause 
than slavery. 

The history of missions in the West Indies affords a useful 
lesson to those who have been struggling for the extension of 
human rights, to the neglect of the use of the means appointed 
to promote the salvation of the souls of men — to those who 
have been careful to tithe the mint, anise, and cummin (to- 
bacco, whisky, and rum,) to the neglect of the weightier mat- 
ters of the law. The results are the more startling, when it is 
considered that there has been a large increase of missionaries 
in this field, and that no interruption of their labors has occurred, 
from the planters or others. Freedom, full and absolute, was 
granted to a barbarous people — barbarous, except to the extent 
to which the mission-work had progressed — and the results have 
been nothing more than should have been expected. In dispo- 
sition and knowledge, the African race, with few exceptions, are 
but children, as compared with the white race ; and when thrown 
upon their own resources, like neglected children, of any color, 
they must necessarily run to ruin. 

7. The Obstacles to African Evangelization in the French West 
India Islands. 

The moral condition of the negro population of Ilayti, before 
emancipation, may be taken as the type of that of the blacks of the 
^thcr French islands. We find that the question of their moral 
condition, under slavery, was a subject of investigation in 1839. 

" Some time ago, a commission was appointed to examine the ques- 
tion of the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. The follow- 
ing extract is taken from a summary of the report presented by M. 
DE TocQUEViLLE, in the name of the commission : " * 

* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, December, 1839. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 169 

" The report passes liglitly and contemptuously over the arguments 
in favor of slavery, and takes for granted the conviction, in every 
mind, that it ought to be done away with. It passes immediately to 
the question of its being necessary to prepare the slave for emancipa- 
tion, previous to liberating him. M. de Tocqueville, in the name of 
the commission, asserts that all attempts to improve, enlighten, and 

prepare the slave, as long as he is a slave, are impossible The 

commission, therefore, abandons the idea of preparing the slave for 
freedom by any regulations of his treatment while a slave. Eman- 
cipation, it adds, can not be deferred. The prospect of it, the idea 
of its necessity, of its necessary arrival at no distant time, render the 
slave incapable of tranquil obedience and good conduct as a slave. 
He is in a false position. The master can no longer retain him, espe- 
cially at night." 

It was not until 1848 that emancipation was declared in the 
French West India Islands, by a decree of the Republic. Their 
population, including free persons and slaves, we find stated as 
follows : * 



COLONIES. 


FKEE. 


SLAVES. 


Martinique {19.40 


47,352 
40,428 
45,512 

14,512 

.•5.4 (55 
8,427 


75,.330 
89,349 
62,164 

7,698 
2.415 
10,113 
10,000 


Gaudaloupe (do) 


Bourbon 'do) 


Nossi Be and Nossi Cumba (do). 1 .. 




St. Mary Magdalene (do) 


Senegal (1846) 


Algiers, (estimate) 


Total 


159,696 


257,059 





A fact or two will illustrate the effects of emancipation upon 
the economical interests of these islands. When M. de Tocque- 
ville made his report, the production of cane sugar, in the whole 
of the islands, was 161,500,000 Ibs.f per annum. In the first 
nine months of 1847, the exports to France were 168,884,177 lbs. 
This shows that the production of the islands was on the increase, 
previous to emancipation. But the abolition of slavery, in 1848, 
at once arrested cultivation, so that, in the first nine months of 

* Anti-Slavery Reporter. 
TThis was the crop of 1840. 



170 PULPIT POLITICS. 

1849, the exports were reduced to 96,929,336 lbs. '^ — being a 
reduction, during the second year of freedom, of more than fifty- 
seven per cent. This sudden falling oJ0F in the production of the 
colonies soon led to the supply of a laboring population, to sup- 
plant the idle free negroes, by the adoption of the " immigration " 
system. The imported laborers were brought from Africa, and 
their procurement, as will be remembered, produced some trouble 
between the French and the authorities of Liberia. It also 
greatly interrupted the American Board's missions on the Ga- 
boon river. 

We find in M. de Tocqueville a zealous disciple of the English 
theories — that the moral elevation of the blacks can not be 
secured under slavery. Time has shown that this gentleman, as 
well as the English theorists, were extremely short-sighted in 
reference to the effects of emancipation. They can now see, that 
freedom to a barbarous population is not necessarily followed by 
the intellectual and moral elevation of the people set at liberty. 

No Protestant missions have been established in these islands. 
The planters are no longer responsible for the slaves of which 
they were robbed ; and, in the midst of continuous importations 
of barbarians from Africa, they can not improve. 

8. The Obstacles to African Evangelization among the Free 
Colored people of the United States and Canada. 

It may be well, in the outset of this investigation, to refer 
again to the moral condition of the free colored population at the 
North, as indicated by the statistics of crime. The preceding 
chapter shows what it was, up to 1826 and 1827 ; it is only neces- 
sary, therefore, to direct attention to their moral condition since 
that period. The results will enable us to determine whether the 
anti-slavery zeal of the North, for the good of the African race, 
has spent as much of its force for the elevation of those already 
free, and at their doors, as has been expended by them in efforts 
for the emancipation of the slaves at the South. The statistics 
below are from the Compendium of the Census of the United 
States for 1850 — those of 1860 not being out: 

* See " Ethiopia," page 136. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 



171 



Tahular Statement of the number of the native and foreign ichite 
population^ the colored jwjmlation, the numher of each class in the 
Penitentiaries, the proportion of the convicts to the whole numher of 
each class, the proportion of colored convicts over the foreign and 
also over the native lohitcs, in the four States named, for the year 
1850: 



CLASSES, ETC. 

Nati vn Whites 

In tho Penitentiary 

Being 1 out of. \ 

Foreign Whites 

In the Penitentiary 

Being 1 out of. 

Colored Popttlatiok 

In the Penitentiary 

Being 1 out of. 

Colored convicts over foreign 

Colored convicts over native 

whites 



MASS. 


N. TORK. 


PENN. 


OHIO. 


819,041 

204 

3,102 


2,388,830 

835 

2,800 


1,953,276 

205 
9,528 


1,732,698 

291 

5,954 


103,598 

125 

1,308 


055,224 

545 

1,202 


303,105 

123 

2,404 


218,099 

71 

3,077 


9,064 

47 

192 

6.8 times 


49,009 

190 
6.3 times 


53,620 

109 

492 

5 times 


25,279 

44 

574 

5.3 times 


16.1 times 


15 times 


19.3 times 


10.3 times 



" It appears from these figures, that the amount of crime among 
the colored people of Massachusetts, in 1850, was ^f^ times greater 
than the amount among the foreign-born population of that State, 
and that the amount, in the four States named, among the free col- 
ored people, averages five-and-three-quarters times more, in proportion 
to their numbers, than it does among the foreign population, and over 
fifteen times more than it does among the native whites. It will be 
instructive, also, to note the moral condition of the free colored peo- 
ple in Massachusetts, the great center of abolitionism, where they 
have enjoyed equal rights ever since 1780. Strange to say, there is 
nearly three times as much crime among them, in that State, as exists 
among those of Ohio! More than this will be useful to note, as it 
regards the direction of the emigration of the free colored people. 
Massachusetts, in 1850, had but 2,687 colored persons born out of the 
State, while Ohio had 12,G62 born out of her limits. Take another 
fact: the increase ^^f'^ cent., of the colored population, in the whole 
New England States, was, during the ten years from 1840 to 1850, 
but IjVf)! ""^tile in Ohio, it was, during that time, 45^'^^. 

" There is another point worthy of notice. Though the New Eng- 
land abolition States have oiFered equal political rights to the colored 
man, it has afibrded him little temptation to emigrate into their 
bounds. On the contrary, several of these States have been dimin- 



172 PULPIT POLITICS. 

ishing their free colored population, for many years past, and none 
of them can have had accessions of colored immigrants ; as is abund- 
antly proved by the fact, that their additions, of this class of persons, 
have not exceeded the natural increase of the resident colored popu- 
lation."* 

A useful lesson is here taught, in relation to the great problem 
of the progress of the African, in civilization, side by side with 
the Caucasian. 

But we must not "pass over an important fact, embraced in the 
question of the moral condition of the free colored population. 
Look again at their condition in Massachusetts, as compared 
with Ohio. In the former, in 1850, one out of every 192 were 
in the Penitentiary, and in the latter, only one out of every 574. 
Why should the colored people be so much better in Ohio than 
in Massachusetts ? In Ohio, more than half the number were 
born out of the State. On coming to Ohio, where did they emi- 
grate from ? Massachusetts ? Scarcely a man of them. The im- 
migration of the free colored people, into the Western free States, 
is nearly all from the slave States. This is a significant fact, 
showing that, even under slavery, the colored man makes more 
progress in morality and industry, than he can do under the shade 
of abolition philanthropy in Massachusetts ! 

From the testimony afforded by statistics, we turn to that fur- 
nished by abolitionists themselves ; so as to learn whether, in 
their opinion, the free colored people have made any advance 
within the last thirty years. Listen to that well-known aboli- 
tionist, Hon. Gerritt Smitu, who, in addressing Governor Hunt 
of New York, in 1852, said : 

" Suppose, moreover, that during all these fifteen years, they had 
been quitting the cities, where the mass of them rot, both physically 
and morally, and had gone into the country to become farmers and 
mechanics — suppose, I say, all this — and who would have the 
hardihood to affirm that the Colonization Society lives upon the 
malignity of the whites — but it is true that it lives upon the vol- 
untary degradation of the blacks. I do not say that the colored peo- 
ple are more debased than the white people would be if persecuted, 

» See Cotton is King, for full details. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 173 

oppressed and outraged as are the colored people. But I do say that 
they are debased, deeply debased ; and that to recover themselves 
they must become heroes, self-denying heroes, capable of achieving a 
great moral victory — a two-fold victory — a victory over themselves 
and a victory over their enemies." 

In referring to the action of the free colored people of New 
York, in 1855, to secure to themselves the right of suffrage, the 
New York Tribune said: 

" It is not logical conviction of the justice of their claims that is 
needed, but a prevalent belief that they would form a wholesome and 
desirable element of the body politic. Their color exposes them to 
much unjust and damaging prejudice; but if their degradation were 

but skin-deep, they might easily overcome it Of course, 

we understand that the evil we contemplate is complex and retroac- 
tive — that the political degradation of the blacks is a cause as well as 
a consequence of their moral debasement. Had they never been en- 
slaved, they would not now be so abject in soul ; had they not been so 
abject, they could not have been enslaved. Our aborigines might 
have been crushed into slavery by overwhelming force ; but they 
could never have been made to live in it. The black man who feels 
insulted in that he is called a ' nigger,' therein attests the degradation 
of his race more forcibly than does the blackguard at whom he takes 
offense; for negro is no further a term of opprobrium than the char- 
acter of the blacks has made it so." 

Rev. H. "W. Beecher, in referring to the degraded condition of 
the free colored people at the North, in his sermon in reference 
to the Harper's Ferry affair, said : 

" How are the free colored people treated at the North ? They are 
almost without education, with but little sympathy for their ignorance. 
They are refused the common rights of citizenship which the whites 
enjoy. They can not even ride in the cars of our city railroads. 
They are snuffed at in the house of God, or tolerated with ill-disguised 
disgust. Can the black man be a mason in New York? Let him be 
employed as a journeyman, and every Irish lover of liberty that car- 
ries the hod or trowel, would leave at once, or compel him to leave ! 
Can the black man be a carpenter? There is scarcely a carpenter's 
shop in New York in which a journeyman would continue to work, 



174 ruLriT politics. 

if a black nirin was employod in it. C;m the black man enqacre in the 
common industries of life? There is scarcely one in which he can 
engage. He is crowded down, down, down through the most menial 
callings, to the bottom of society. We tax them and then refuse to 
allow their children to go to our public schools. "We tax them and 
then refuse to sit by them in God's house. We heap upon them 
moral obloquy more atrocious than that which the master heaps upon 
the slave. And notwithstanding all this, we lift ourselves up to talk 
to the Southern people about the rights and liberties of the human 

soul, and especially the African soul ! The degradation of 

the free colored men in the North will fortify slavery in the South ! " 

Mr. Beecher never uttered anything nearer the truth, than the 
last sentence quoted. The failure of the abolitionists of the North, 
to enable its free colored people to profit by freedom, has effect- 
ually barred all farther State emancipation at the South. 

From such facts as the preceding, it appears that emancipation, 
as heretofore conducted, has left the colored man unprotected and 
unsupported, to fall, ultimately, as a helpless burden upon the 
whites, or to sink down again toward his original barbarism. 
Lord Mansfield's decision had this effect upon the colored people 
of England ; and the burden was only removed, by their transfer 
to Africa. The results of emancipation in the British islands 
have been of a similar character, producing wide-spread ruin, 
generally, in the economical interests of the islands, Avhich has 
only been arrested where large importations of coolies have been 
made to carry on the cultivation, or where the density of the 
population has compelled the blacks to labor or starve. '•' No 
better results have followed the freedom of the negroes in Hay ti ; 
and, now, it is likely to be wholly blotted out as a republic, and 
restored to its former productiveness, under the control of a 
superior race. The same results, substantially, followed the lib- 
eration of a portion of the slaves, at an early day, in the United 
States — leading to colonization as a means of relief from the 
presence of a helpless class of freemen. 

After the abolition movement had been fairly inaugurated, the 
subject of the helpless condition of the free colored people was a 
frequent topic of discussion ; and it became a popular argument 

* See what Mr. Sewell says, in Chapter V. of this volume. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 175 

against farther emancipations, as useless, because valueless to tlie 
colored people themselves. It was urged by the abolitionists, in 
reply, that the elevation of those who had been liberated, could 
not be hoped for, so long as any of the race remained in bondage. 
This was, practically, to say : we of the North find it impossible 
to elevate the few thousands whom we have humanely set free ; 
therefore, you of the South must emancipate the several millions 
which you own ; so that the whole of the African race, among us, 
may be improved, in their moral condition, by one grand move- 
ment embracing the whole country. This position of the aboli- 
tionists, was in direct opposition to the opinions which had been 
held at the North, in relation to the benefits of emancipation; 
and was, in fact, an admission, substantially, that the South had 
been right in its views of the inefiiciency of mere personal free- 
dom, as a means of advancement to the negro race. -'' 

That there had been gross neglect of the colored men in the 
North, is abundantly apparent from what has been stated ; but it 
will appear still more apparent, from the additional statistics of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, from 1836 to 1845, including 
the period of the disruption of this Church. 

* That a determination existed to force emancii^ation upon the South, regard- 
less of consequences, and without consulting the history of past experiments, 
is apparent from the fact, that, as early as 1831^ fifteen petitions were presented 
in Congress from Pennsylvania, praying the abolition of slavei-y in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and the abolition of the slave trade therein. Mr. Adams, 
in presenting these petitions, very frankly gave it as his opinion, that the 
abolition of slavery in the District was improper, and he would not support 
any such measure; but as the existence of the traffic in slaves within the Dis- 
trict might be a proper subject of Congressional inquiry, he would move the 
reference of the petitions to the committee having charge of its interests. 
Whatever his opinion of slavery in the abstract, or of slavery in the District 
of Columbia might be, he said he hoped the subject might not be discussed in 
the House. He would say that the most salutary medicine unduly administered, 
was the most deadly poison. It might have been well for the peace of the 
country, if Mr. Adams had ever afterward maintained the ground here taken 
on the slavery question. 

The petitions were referred to the committee on the District of Columbia, of 
which Mr. Doddridge, of Virginia, was chairman, who afterward made a report 
asking to be discharged from the farther consideration of so much of said peti- 
tions as asked the abolition of slavery in the District. In 1817, several peti- 
tions were presented against the slave trade between the Middle and Southern 
States, which were read and referred. — [See Polit. Text-Book, by M. W. Cluskey 



176 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



Colored memlersMp of the 3IetJiodist Episcopal Church, from 1836 
to 1845, the year 1840 being omitted as imperfect in its returns : 



CONFERENCES. 


1836 


1837 


1838 


1839 


1841 


1842 


1843 


1844 


1845 


New England.. 


395 
3 

15 

434 

61 

90 

"sis 

'It 

"240 

""es 

1,189 
5,.32] 

4,693 
2,189 

3"4(53 
2,531 
7,204 
23,643 

7,081 
13,867 
8,951 


381 

18 

434 

61 

87 
56 
502 
298 
34 
564 

"40 
S35 

■■■66 

"940 
4.951 
3,901 
1,997 

■599 

2',^884 

1,841 

6,664 

23,166 

6","li'7 
13,527 

7,777 


393 

12 

538 
105 

95 
73 

478 
295 
33 
537 

"59 
308 

■'losi 

■■8i'2 

4,770 
4,598 
2,129 

'592 

2,'830 
1,587 
7,126 

23,498 
3,896 
2,950 

13,.30] 
8,112 


235 

452 
105 

96 

63 

496 

427 
46 
613 

327 
■ 182 

■'9O6 
5,854 
6,190 
1,820 

■■683 

3',^530 
3,905 
8,358 

24,8^2 
4,315 
2,951 

13,544 
8,304 


235 

405 

78 

92 
60 

542 

474 
50 

662 
91 
12 

407 

80 
21 

l','224 
6,321 
4.406 
2,420 
1,995 
725 
230 

5,^821 
4,178 
9,989 

.30,481 
4,480 
3,086 

13,904 
8,778 


419 
89 
104 

26 
88 

643 

487 
52 

606 
89 
14 

235 

"It 

l',^399 
6,761 
4,234 
2,832 
2,289 
828 
407 

7','505 
4,089 
11,457 
30,860 
4,733 
3,558 
13,526 
9,086 


139 

440 
84 
93 

113 

60 

769 

532 

61 

611 

128 

5 

245 

■■■54 

.1 
l','874 
8,544 
4,336 
3,805 
3,535 
1,091 
536 

9,'37.3 

6,048 

14,056 

33,375 

5,163 

3,777 

17,995 

10,712 


424 
14c 

lie 

78 
817 
495 

72 
640 

20 
257 

■"7.3 
36 

2',^388 
9,951 
6,478 
4,001 
4,461 
1,804 
856 

12",'06i 
7,087 
15,.346 
.37,962 
6,226 
4,799 
16,973 
10,917 


380 
92 

119 

74 

763 

405 

86 

523 

40 

10 

159 

47 

71 

23 

12 

2, .530 

9.362 

6,859 

4,001 

4,843 

1.775 

1,005 

2,653 

13,637 

7,799 

1.3,994 

39,496 

6,.390 

4,949 

16,412 

10,742 


N. Hampshire. 
New York 


Providence 

Oneida & Black 




New Jersey 

Pittsburgh 

Erie 


Ohio 

North Ohio 

Michigan 


North Indiana. 


Rock River 

Iowa 

Missouri 


Kentucky 

Tennessee 

Holston 


Memphis 

Arkansas 




Alabama 

Mississippi 


South Carolina. 
North Carolina 


Baltimore 

Philadelphia... 

Total 


82,296 


76,240 


79,236 


87,197 


101,236 


106,478 


127,574 


144,535 


149,150 



Tho dotted lines ( ) indicate that the Church had not yet been organized. The dash, ( ) 

that the Chnrch had been organized, but had no colored members of that date. 

But did the disruption of the Methodist Church, and the dis- 
connection of the Northern ministers from those of the South, 
give them any more power over the free colored people ? Let 
the statistics of the succeeding years answer that question ; it 
being remarked, that the border States, to some extent, remained 
with the Church North ; and that the Philadelphia Conference in- 
cludes the State of Delaware and a part of Maryland. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 177 



Colored member sJiip of the 3Iefhodist Episcopal Church North, from 
the disruption until the Annual Conferences ceased to distinguish 
the colored from the tvhite members : 



CONFERENCES. 



I 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 



Baltimore* 

Philadelphia 

Providence 

New Jersey 

New England 

New York 

New York East ... 

Troy 

New Hampshire ., 

Vermont 

Black River 

Pittsburgh , 

Western Virginia. 

Oneida 

Wisconsin 

Erie 

Rock River 

North Ohio 

Geuessee 

East Genessee , 

Maine 

East Maine 

Ohio 

Missouri 

Iowa 

Illinois '. 

North Indiana 

Michigan 

Indiana 



Total 29,723 29,041 28,289 27,526 27,022 



16,:',87 
9,992 



86 


'"Sfi 


61 
19 
31 

68 


68 

65 

68 


"680 


"514 


'""s 


32 



16,156 
9,612 



15,759 
9,306 



15,802 
8,938 



The (lotted lines ( ) indicate that the Church had not yet been org 

that the Church had been organized, but had no colored members of thai 



The dash, ( ) 



It was with such returns as these before them, of the faikire of 
the Methodist ministry to benefit the free colored people, that the 
Bishops, in the General Conference of 1814, New York City, felt 
constrained to give the subject their most serious consideration. 
We quote but a few sentences, referring the reader to their Letter 
at large : f 

"We can not but view it as a matter of deep regret, that the spirit- 



* The figures for the year 1849 and 1850, in the Baltimore Conference, includa 
members and probationers. t See Chapter VIII., session of 1856. 

12 



178 PULPIT POLITICS. 

ual interests of tlie people of color, in these United States, have been 
so long and so greatly neglected by the Christian churches. And it 

is greatly to be feared that we are not innocent in this thing 

Let facts give the answer. From an examination of oiEcial records, 
it appears that there are four annual conferences, in which there is 
not a single colored member in the church. Eight others have an 
aggregate number of four hundred and sixty-three, averaging less 
than sixty. And taking fifteen, about one-half of the conferences in 
the connection, and some of them among the largest, both in the 
ministry and membership, and the whole number of colored members 
is but one thousand three hundred and nine, giving an average of less 
than ninety. It is well known that in many of these conferences 
there are a numerous population, and in each of them a considerable 
num.ber. It is presumed that the freedom of the people of color, 
within the bounds of these conferences, will not be urged as the 
cause of their not being brought under religious influence, and gath- 
ered into the fold of Christ. We are certainly not prepared to admit 
that a state of servitude is more favorable to the success of the Gros- 
pel, in its experimental and practical effects, than a state of freedom," 

The force of the remarks of the Bishops-, and the pungency 
of the rebuke they administered, Avill be understood, when it is 
stated, that the conferences which had done the least for the free 
colored people were those which, as a general thing, had been 
the most zealous in forwarding abolition memorials to the Gen- 
eral Conference. 

This question will be well understood by a careful examination 
of the preceding statistical tables. From 1836 to 1845 the col- 
ored membership increased from 82,296 to 149,150, nearly the 
whole of which increase was in the slave States. Exclusive of 
the Philadelphia Conference, there was an increase of only 640 
in the free States, during these nine years ! 

This Church resolved to divide in 1844, but the statistics were 
not taken separately until after 1845. From this date, then, the 
conferences at the North are no longer trammeled by an alliance 
with the South — some of the border churches and conferences, 
only, remaining Avith the Church North. What, then, are the 
results? The statistics from 1846 to 1850, inclusive, show a de- 
crease of the colored membership, in these four years, of 2,703 — 
2,102 of which decrease was in the border conferences of Balti- 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 179 

more and Philadelphia, and 601 of the decrease in the other 
twenty-seven conferences. Truly, the disruption of the Meth- 
odist Church has been disastrous to the cause of African evan- 
gelization, so far as the Methodist ministry are concerned, not 
only in the border slave States, but throughout the free States 
generally. The language employed, in reference to the churches 
among the freedmen of Jamaica, applies with equal force to the 
conferences in the Northern States, so far as relates to their col- 
ored converts : " The members in society do not increase ! " 

The Methodist Church was not alone in having lost her influ- 
ence with the free colored people of the North, as a consequence 
of the abolition controversy. Very few of the churches of the 
whites had any considerable number of colored people in their 
communion ; and where they had, they were rarely able long to 
retain them. The abolition controversy was so conducted as to 
awaken the most bitter prejudices in the minds of the colored 
professors against the whites. They were taught to believe that 
no slaveholder could be a Christian, and that the churches, whose 
jurisdiction extended into the slave States, were not Christian 
churches. We must not be understood, here, as attributing these 
ultra views as coming, in this form, from any ecclesiastical body 
of respectable standing, but mainly from the abolitionists and 
their lecturers, who traversed the country to propagate abolition 
doctrines.-'^ They were further taught, that the Almighty pos- 

* Gen-itt Smith, on August 5, 18-37, in addressing the editor of the New York 
Tribune, used the following language, from which it will be seen that he urged 
the colored people to abjure all churches which spared slavery — all, of course, 
who did not occupy abolition ground : 

"Our colored people complain of your treatment of them. I think myself 
that it is sometimes too rigorous, though, in the main, I candidly approve it. 
You are their friend in demanding that tliey shall, by their own good conduct, 
redeem themselves from their deep debasement. You deal but justly with 
them, when you declare that their own bad influence goes further than tlie 
arts of the worst slaveholders to uphold slavery. 

" So far from making their wrongs and outrages an excuse for their con- 
tinued degradation, the free colored people should, in view of these wrongs 
and outrages, arouse themselves to the irresistible determination to equal and 
surpass their persecutors in all that honors manhood. They should swear that 
they will be Pariahs and lepers no longer. To this end, they should quit the 
towns, in which they are wont to congregate, and where they are but servants, 



180 PULPIT POLITICS. 

sessed no attribute -^vliicli could tolerate or sanction the principle 
of slavery, or the holding of " property in man." This doctrine, 
advocated by the Christian TnfelUgencer, ^Yas copied into the abo- 
lition papers, and proclaimed throughout the North. 

And what was the consequence of this teaching? Among the 
educated young colored men were some who had a little knowl- 
edge of logic. More than once the author has heard them dis- 
cuss this point, of " the right of property in man," and dispose 
of it thus : " The Almighty can neither sanction nor tolerate 
the holding of property in man : the Bible sanctions the holding 
of property in man : therefore the Bible is not the Avord of God." 
They relied upon Exodus xxi : 20, 21, to sustain them in their 
position : " And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a 
rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. 
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be 
punished ; for he is his money." They insisted that the last 
clause of this quotation clearly taught, that the slave is the prop- 
erty of his master — " for he is his money." These young infi- 
dels are men now advanced in life, but they have never embraced 
the Bible as the word of God. "Who is responsible for mislead- 
ing them? 

Fortunately, the entire mass of the colored professors of reli- 
gion were influenced more by their piety than they were by the 
logic employed against the Bible. And, though their alienation 
of affection for the white churches became complete, they still 
adhered to their profession of religion, and went into the organ- 
ization of African churches. This task was the more easily per- 
formed, because churches of this class had been established in 
the country at an early day. A brief notice of these organiza- 
tions will be necessary to a proper understanding of the position 
of the colored professors of religion in the North. 

African Methodist Church. — This body had its origin in 

and should scatter themselves over the country in the capacity of farmers and 
mechanics. They should cease from the habit of wasting their earnings in 
periodical balls. They should never wet their lips with intoxicating drinks 
nor defile them with tobacco. They should never so war upon their self- 
respect as to join a Church which spares slavery, or join a political party 
which knows law for slavery." 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 181 

the city of Philadelpliia, in 1787, owing to difficulties growing 
out of the colored people and the whites meeting together for 
public worship. Bishop White of the Episcopal Church, sympa- 
thizing with the colored people, ordained one of their own num- 
ber as pastor. In 1793, their numbers had so increased that a 
meeting-house was erected for them, and dedicated by Bishop 
Asbury, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, under the name of 
Bethel — the members giving a preference for the Methodist 
Church. Various difficulties beset them, in their relations with 
the Methodist Church, when, in 1816, a convention was called in 
Philadelphia, for the purpose of organizing on a broader basis, 
so as to include tlio colored professors in Baltimore and else- 
where. Ail organization was formed under the name of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church. The first annual confer- 
ence was held at Baltimore, April, 1818 ; "since when, the Church 
has been making quiet but steady progress. It has a Book Con- 
cern and a Missionary Society." * 

ZioN African Methodist Episcopal Church. — The rise of 
this society was also due to disagreements between the whites 
and colored people. It had its origin in New York city, and its 
first church was built in 1800. In 1820, the society erected 
itself into a distinct and independent body. It received into 
connection with it several other Churches, and, in 1821, held an 
annual conference in New York city. Twenty-two ministers 
were in attendance, and the number of church members reported 
was 1,426. At the annual conference, in 1838, the society elected 
its first superintendent. 

The estimated membership of the Bethel and the Zion Meth- 
odist Episcopal Churches is 26,746 ; the traveling preachers 193 ; 
the local 444. f 

We have before us the Report of the Twelfth General Confer- 
ence of this African Methodist Episcopal Church, held in 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1860. The conference was presided 
over by Bishops Quinn, Nazrey, and Payne, all colored men. 
Seven conferences were represented, besides that of Canada, 
from which a delegate was present. 

* American Cliristian Record, 1860, pages 141, 142. f Ibid., p. 143. 



182 PULPIT POLITICS. 

In the course of the proceedings relating to Canada, it was 
decided to be expedient that the conference in that province 
shoukl be separated from the General Conference of the United 
States ; and the following very sensible reason was assigned in 
its favor : 

" Because all societies, in their organization, in order to receive 
protection from civil law, must be subject to the government, and 
recognize the authority that exists. In the present state of things 
this can not be done by the Canadian Conference, while they use our 
form of Discipline. 

The conference also passed resolutions in recognition of the 
Liberia Methodist Episcopal Church. This is a movement in the 
right direction, and shows that the bitter hostility once existing 
against Liberia is yielding under the progress of intelligence in 
this body. 

But the most important portion of the proceedings is the argu- 
ment of Bishop Payne, defending himself against the decision of 
a committee who had disapproved his action in a case where he 
had rejected an applicant for deacon's orders, on the ground that 
he was not a member of the annual conference, and to ordain 
him, therefore, would be a violation of Discipline. The Bishop 
took an appeal from the decision of the committee, and was sus- 
tained by the conference. 

We refer to this case, to make a short quotation from the argu- 
ment of the Bishop. It is a fair example of the advantages of a 
little common sense, in dealing with questions which, in its ab- 
sence, have led men's minds into inextricable confusion. The 
applicability of the Bishop's argument to the abolition interpre- 
tations of the Constitution of the United States will be at once 
apparent. Had his strong common sense, as applied to a ques- 
tion respecting constitutional church polity, been exercised in 
relation to the National Constitution, we should never have had 
the troubles that are now upon us. But let us hear the Bishop, 
at the same time keeping in mind that what he says is designed 
to be applied by us tc the subjects discussed in the chapter on 
Political Abolitionism : 

" In every well-organized government, which has continued for any 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 183 

length of time, say a single generation, tliere will be found three dif- 
ferent kinds of laws : 

" 1. Constitutional law. 

" 2. Statute law. 

" 3. Common, or unwritten law. 

" The Constitutional is that which enters into the structure of the 
government, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, and is sometimes 
called the organic law. It is, therefore, fundamental and supreme. 
Being supreme, it controls both the statute and common law. 

" Statute laws are legislative enactments, made for the purpose of 
accomplishing some end expressed or implied in the constitutional, 
and, therefore, imist always be subordinate to the constitutional ; 
never subversive of it. 

" Whenever a statute law is subversive of the constitutional, it 
becomes null and void — a mere dead letter. 

' " The common, or unwritten, law derives its authority from custom 
or usage. In the State it is always called the common law ; in the 
Church it is always called tisafje. The common law, or usage, like 
the statute, must always be subordinate to the constitutional. If 
subversive of the constitutional, it must be set aside, and trampled 
under foot. 

" Now, the verdict of the committee is based upon a statute law of 
the American Methodist Episcopal Church, to which they refer in 
.Discipline of 1856. 

" But the venerable committee seem to have forgotten that there is 
a higher law than the one to which they refer, for they make no allu- 
sion to it; I mean, the constitutional 

" It is also maintained that it is the usage of our Church to ordain 
local preachers who are not members "of the annual conference. But 
what is usaije, in the presence of constitutional law? Why nothing 
more than chaff hefore the wind. That man who suffers statutes or 
usages to subvert the constitutional law, is not a good governor, but 
a bad one. To do this is to he guilty of misrule 

" Men ! brethren ! fathers ! I call upon you to sustain the gov- 
ernment ! 

" Remember that the privilege is not to be given till the obedi- 
ence is yielded; nor the right secured and enjoyed till the duty is 
performed. 

" Brother Michum requests a privilege before he yields the required 
obedience — he demands a right before the duty is performed. Will 
you do this? Nay! Yoa will not; — you can not. 



184 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" Men ! brethren ! fathers ! I call on you to preserve the statute 
in harmony with the constitution ; and both in obedience to the la-n 
of God." 

The details of the condition of the conferences of this Church 
are not in our possession. One only, the Report of the Cincin- 
nati Conference, has come within our reach. Its session of 1860 
reported, as under its care, 16 stations in principal cities and 
towns; 70 circuits; 3,902 members and 283 probationers. This 
conference seems to cover the territory of Ohio and ^A'estern 
Pennsylvania. 

In relation to the colored Baptist Churches, we have been un- 
able to obtain full information. We have before us, however, the 
Minutes of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Union 
Anti-Slavery Baptist Association, which met in Pike county, 
Ohio, 1857. Two preceding reports are also before us. The 
report of 1857 embraces 27 churches, which had received, by 
baptism, during the year past, 161 members, and they had a total 
membership of 1,423 — four of the congregations not reporting, 
but which had previously reported 144 members, making a prob- 
able total, in 1857, of 1,567. The report for 1856 gives an in- 
crease for the year, by baptisms, of 135, and a total membership 
of 1,282 — the statistics being full, and 22 churches represented. 
The report for 1855 gives an increase, by baptisms, for the year, 
of 83, and a total membership of 1,430 — there being three con- 
gregations not represented, two of which, in the report of 1856, 
give a membership of 107, thus giving a total of more than 1,537. 

It appears from these statistics, that no very encouraging pro- 
gress has been made by these colored Baptist churches, if we 
compare them with the success of the Baptists South among the 
colored people. 

We have also before us the Minutes of the Twenty-Fifth 
Anniversary of the Providence Anti-Slavery Baptist Asso- 
ciation, held in Jackson county, Ohio, 1859. Delegates to the 
number of 40 were present. Several churches were not repre- 
sented. The total membership reported is 980, there being three 
congregations which made no returns. This organization seems 
to be limited to Ohio. It issued a most excellent Circular Letter, 
which breathes the true spirit of Christian piety, humility, and 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 185 

devotion. But on the very next page, we have a fair illustra- 
tion of the injurious effects of clergymen interfering in civil 
affairs. In referring to the arrest and imprisonment of the col- 
ored men who rescued a fugitive slave from the United States 
marshal, and were then suffering the penalty of their violation 
of law, the Association passed the following resolutions : 

" 16th Item. Resolved, That C. H. Langston and his worthy asso- 
ciates, who, in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law, rescued the man 
John from his claimants, gave a practical illustration of Christianity i 
in that act, which needs to be often repeated, if we would save Chris- 
tianity from the sneer of the infidel ; for, that Christianity which ex- 
pends itself in distributing tracts, in making long prayers, in erecting 
splendid church edifices, and reclining upon richly cushioned seats, 
listening to invectives against crinoline, chewing tobacco and dancing, 
while it opens not its ears to the piteous groans of the bleeding slave, 
as they issue from the hell of slavery, and through fear of imprison 
ment and bonds, loss of reputation and money,, will permit the poor 
slave, as he flees, all trembling, broken-hearted and bleeding, to be 
clutched by his blood-hound pursuers, and dragged back into the liell 
of slavery, is certainly not the religion of the holy Jesus, but a lie, 
and they who preach and practice it, are hypocrites. 

" Resolved, That in rescuing John, despite the rigors of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law and the insolence of governmental ofiicials, which they 
knew would be mercilessly exercised over them, Langston and his 
associates rendered themselves illustrious as practical, Christian phi- 
lanthropists. 

" Resolved, That our brethren every where emulate each other in 
striving to show who can do the most to relieve those men from 
their pecuniary embarrassments, occasioned by that noble act. 

•' The reading of these resolutions brought pretty much the whole 
Association to their feet, all of whom, as they could get opportunity, 
warmly advocated their adoption. 

"Unanimously adopted." 

These councils, coming from professed ministers of the Gospel, 
are not calculated to give the impression that such men are well 
prepared to act their part as safe members of civil society. It 
is such a spirit as this, in the free colored men, that determines 
all sober-thoughted citizens to resist the emancipation of a race 



186 PULPIT POLITICS. 

who never have, wliile standing alone, been able to maintain civil 
institutions ; and who, in connection with the superior races, have 
always, to a greater or less extent, been a disturbing element in 
civilized communities. Encouraging resistance to law, under the 
guise of religion, is no palliation of the crime, come from whence 
it may. But the colored ministers, in extenuation of their offense, 
can plead the example of white ministers of the Gospel, This, 
however, is only an additional evidence of their want of a sound 
judgment, and of the ease with which they yield to their pas- 
sions and prejudices when under the influence of bad men. 

The obstacles to the moral progress of the free colored people 
in the North have been very great. A moment's attention to this 
point is necessary to a correct understanding of their true posi- 
tion. As in the South so in the North, there had been colored 
men admitted into the ministry upon Avhom the Gospel had ex- 
erted its influence ; and who were laboring not only to keep them- 
selves unspotted from the world, but to bring others, also, into 
the practice of Gospel purity. Aware of the advantages of edu- 
cation to preachers of the Gospel, the efi'ort was made, by lead- 
ing colored men, to establish institutions of learning for the edu- 
cation of colored youth. Without adequate wealth of their own, 
they appealed to the whites for aid, but, generally, without any 
great degree of success, Nor did the leaders of abolitionism 
seem to take much interest in direct efforts for the elevation of 
the colored men already free ; but, on the contrary, these appli- 
cations for assistance Avere often viewed as great annoyances. 
In speaking of them, the New York Tribune, on one occasion, 
said : 

" At present white men dread to be known as friendly to the black, 
because of the never-ending, still-beginning importunities to help 
this or that object of negro charity or philanthropy to which such a 
reputation inevitably subjects them." 

To give money for the publication of incendiary documents — 
for the aid of escaping fugitive slaves — for Sharpe's rifles to 
shoot pro-slavery men in Kansas — for anything that would in- 
jure or annoy the slaveholder — were objects liberally supported 
by donations from abolitionists : but to contribute to the estab- 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 187 

lishraent of colleges and seminaries, for the education of the free 
colored people, were enterprises that could not enlist their sympa- 
thies, so as to open their purse-strings. To applications of this 
kind -we know the reply, in substance, has often been : 

" We, abolitionists, are laboring for the destruction of slavery, and, 
at present, can do nothing for you. Until that evil is removed, the 
free colored people can not rise into respectability, or be relieved 
from the prejudice which now bears them down. Universal emanci- 
pation, therefore, is the first object to be gained ; as, after that, preju- 
dice will disappear, and the best schools and colleges in the land be 
thrown open to the colored man." 

Thus repelled, but self-reliant, the colored men, to whom we 
have alluded, toiled on, almost unaided, in the work of Christian 
instruction and moral reform. Their field of labor has been beset 
with many difficulties. Concentrated mostly in large cities and 
towns, the colored population are subjected to many temptations, 
thus rendering the task of their elevation the more difficult of 
accomplishment. The preachers, in many cases, have to pursue 
some occupation to aid in making a support, and have thus less 
time for study. That they are able to sustain their churches, in 
the midst of so many obstacles to success, argues well for their 
faithfulness as ministers of the Gospel. 

By reference to the statistics of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church (whites) in the preceding pages, it will be seen that the 
Pittsburgh and Ohio Conferences, which covered the ground now 
occupied by the colored conference, had a colored membership, in 
1834, of 921 ; in 1843, of 1,143; in 1845, of 9G8 ; and in 1850, 
of only 491. The withdrawal of the colored membership, from 
the old to the new organization, will explain this decrease ; and 
these statistics also show, that the African Methodist Church 
have made aii increase, on the former membership in the old 
church, extending from 1,143, in 1843, to 4,185, including proba- 
tioners, in 1860 — an increase of nearly fourfold. 

Canada has long been the promised land of the colored man ; 
it, therefore, demands a somewhat more extended notice. In the 
outset it must be remembered, that the colored population of Can- 
ada are mainly fugitive slaves. The original colored settlers 



188 PULPIT POLITICS, 

■were mostly from Cincinnati, and embraced some men of excel- 
lence and piety. The American Missionary Association at- 
tempted to take the religious oversight of these people, and, at 
first, Avith promises of success ; but, after a time, the teachers 
and missionaries lost their influence, and had, in a good degree, 
to abandon the field. Out of four stations, at the opening of 
1853, but one school remained at its close. All the others had 
been abandoned, and all the missionaries had asked to be re- 
leased. * Early in the year, one of the missionaries wrote to the 
association, saying — " that the opposition to white missionaries, 
manifested by the colored people of Canada, had so greatly in- 
creased, by the interested misrepresentations of ignorant colored 
men pretending to be ministers of the Gospel, that he thought 
his own and his wife's labors, and the funds of the association, 
could be better employed elsewhere." 

In 1857, the association report but one missionary in Canada, 
and he had been mobbed by the colored people, and, at one time, 
his life was thought to be in danger. In June, his church was 
burned down; and, in August following, another building which 
he had secured shared the same fate — both being the work of 
incendiaries. " This field," says the Eleventh Annual Report, 
" is emphatically a hard one, and requires much faith and patience 
from those who labor there." 

In 1858, the missionary wrote : " My wife's school is in a pros- 
perous condition. She has nearly forty scholars, and they learn 
well. There are numbers who can not come to school for want 
of suitable clothing. They are nearly naked." f On another 
occasion it is said, " the missionaries find it extremely difiicult to 
win the confidence of the colored people of Canada." | 

The report of 1859 shows that several Sunday-schools and two 
churches had been formed among the colored population of the 
Canada mission ; and that Mr. Ilotchkiss had added eighteen con- 
verts to the churches under his care in a little more than a year. 

But we have an example of a difierent kind to report, and one 
that confirms what we have heretofore said — that it is only 

* Seventh Annual Report of American Missionary Association, 
t American Missionary, October, 1858. 
t African Repository, January, 1858. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 189 

where proper moral control is exercised, that any real progress 
can be made by the blacks : 

" Some years ago, the Rev. William King, a slave owner in Louisi- 
ana, manumitted his slaves and removed them to Canada. They novy, 
with others, occupy a tract of land at Buxton and the vicinity, called 
the ' Elgin Block,' where Mr. King is stationed as a Presbyterian 
missionary. 

" A recent general meeting there was attended by Lord Althorp, 
son of Earl Spencer, and J. W. Probyn, Esq., both members of the 
British Parliament, who made addresses. The whole educational and 
moral machinery is worked by the presiding genius of the Rev. W. 
King, to whom the entire settlement are under felt and acknowledged 
obligations. He teaches them agriculture and industry. He super- 
intends their education, and preaches on the Lord's day. He regards 
the experiment as highly successful."* 

The records of crime in Canada, as in Massachusetts, will fur- 
nish the best index to the moral condition of the great mass of 
the colored population. Aside from the favorable operations of 
Mr. King, among his own people, and over whom he exerts about 
as much control as he did in Louisiana, we can not learn that any 
considerable progress is being made, by the free negroes, in Can- 
ada. A few points, collated from an extended investigation of 
this subject, will set the question in its true light. 

On the 27th of April, 1841, the Assistant Secretary to Govern- 
ment addressed Colonel Robert Lachlan, Chairman of the Quar- 
ter Sessions for the Western District, Canada, requesting informa- 
tion relating to the colored immigrants in that quarter. From 
Colonel Lachlan's reply, we make a few quotations : f 

■•■■■ African Repository, January, 1858. 

t " Colonel Lachlan entered the public service of the British Government in 
1805, and was connected with the army in India for twenty years. Having 
retired from that service, he settled in Canada in 1835, with the intention of 
devoting himself to agriculture; but he was again called into public life, as 
sheriff, magistrate, colonel of militia, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, and 
Associate Judge of the Assizes. In 1857, he removed to Cincinnati, where he 
now resides. A true Briton, he is an enemy of the system of slavery; but 
having been a close observer of the workings of society, under various circum- 
stances, systems of law, degrees of intelligence, and moral conditions, he is 
opposed to placing two races, so widely diverse as the blacks and whites, upon 



190 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" The first time that I had occasion to express myself thus strongly 
on the subject, in an official way, was more than three years after my 
arrival in the District, while holding the office of sherifi" — when, in 
corresponding with Mr. Secretary Joseph, during the troubles in 
January, 1838, I, in a postscript to a letter in which I expressed un- 
willingness to call in aid from other quarters, while our own popula- 
tion were allowed to remain inactive, was led to add the following 
remarkable words : ' My vote has been equally decided against employ- 
ing the colored people, except on a similar emergency ; in fact, though 
a cordial friend to the emancipation of the poor African, I regard the 
rapidly increasing population rising round us, as destined to be a 
bitter curse to the District ; and do not think our employing them as 
our defenders at all likely to retard the progress of such an event;' 
an opinion which all my subsequent observation and experience, 
whether as a private individual, as Sheriff of the District, as a local 
Magistrate, as Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, or as an anxious 
friend to pure British immigration, have only the more strongly con- 
firmed 

" That place may now be regarded as the Western rendezvous of 
the colored race — being the point to which all the idle and worthless, 
as well as the well disposed, first direct their steps, before dispersing 
over other parts of the District — a distinction of which it unfor- 
tunately bears too evident marks in the great number of petty crimes 
committed by or brought home to these people — to the great trouble 
of the investigating local magistrates, and the still greater annoyance 
of the inhabitants generally — arising from the constant nightly 
depredations committed on their orchards, barns, granaries, sheep- 
folds, fowl-yards, and even cellars In Gosfield, I am given 

to understand their general character is rather above par; 

while in the next adjoining township of Mersea, so much are they 
disliked by the inhabitants, that they are, in a manner, proscribed by 
general consent — a colored man being there scarcely suffered to travel 
along the high roads unmolested. 

terms of legal equality; not that he is opposed to the elevation of the colored 
man, but because he is convinced that, in his present state of ignorance and 
degradation, the two races can not dwell together in peace and harmonj'. This 
opinion, it will be seen, was the outgrowth of his experience and observation 
in Canada, and not the result of a prejudice against the African race. The 
Western District, the field of his official labors, is the main point toward which 
nearly all the emigration from the States is directed; and the Col. had, thus, 
the best opportunities for studying this question." — ["Cotton is King," p. 177. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 191 

" The first thing that forcibly struelc me, in these people, was a total 
absence of that modest and unpresuming demeanor which I had been 
somehow led to expect, and the assumption, instead, of a 'free and 
easy ' independence of manner as well as language toward all white 
inhabitants, except their immediate employers ; together with an ap- 
parent utter indifference to being hired on reasonable average wages, 
though, as already stated, seemingly without any visible means of a 
livelihood ; and their also, at all times, estimating the value of their 
labor on a par with, if not above that of the white man. And I had 
scarcely recovered from surprise, at such conduct, as a private in- 
dividual, when, as a magistrate, I was still more astonished at the 
great amount of not only petty offenses, but of crime of the most 
atrocious dye, perpetrated by so small a body of strangers compared 
with the great bulk of the white population : and such still continuing 
to be the unabating case, Session after Session, Assize after Assize, it 
at length became so appalling to my feelings, that on being placed in 
the chair of the Quarter Sessions, I could not refrain from more than 
once pointing to it in strong language in my charges to the Grand 
Juries. In July last year, for instance, I was led, in connection with 

a particular case of larceny, to observe ' The case itself 

will, I trust, involve no difficulty so far as the Grand Jury is con- 
cerned ; but it affords the magistrates another opportunity of lament- 
ing that there should so speedily be furnished no less than five addi- 
tional instances of the rapid increase of crime in this (hitherto in that 
respect highly fortunate) District, arising solely from the recent great 
influx of colored people into it from the neighboring United States — 
and who unfortunately not only furnish the major part of the crime 
perpetrated in the District, but also thereby a very gTcat portion of 
its rapidly increasing debt — from the expense attending their main- 
tenance in jail before trial, as well as after conviction ! ' 

"In spite of these solemn admonitions, a large proportion of the 
criminals tried at the ensuing September Assizes were colored people ; 
and among them were two aggravated cases of rape and arson ; the 
former wantonly perpetrated on a respectable farmer's wife, in this 
township, to whom the wretch was a perfect stranger ; the latter reck- 
lessly committed at a merchant's store in the vicinity of Sandwich, 
for the mere purpose of opening a hole through which to convey away 
his plunder. And, notwithstanding 'the general jail delivery' that 
then took place, the gi'cater part of the crimes brought before the 
following month's Quarter Sessions (chiefly larceny and assaults) were 
furnished by the same people! — a circumstance of so alarming and 



192 PULPIT POLITICS. 

distressing a cliaracter, that I was again led to comment upon it Id 
my charge to the Grand Jury in the following terms : ' Having dis- 
posed of" the law relating to these offenses, I arrive at a very painful 
part of my observations, in once more calling the particular attention 
of the Grand Jury, as well as the public at large, to the remarkable 
and appalling circumstance that among a population of near 20,000 
souls, inhabiting this District, the greater portion of the crime per 
petrated therein should be committed by less than 2,000 refugees from 
a life of abject slavery, to a land of liberty, protection, and comfort — 
and from whom, therefore, if there be such generous feelings as thank- 
fulness and gratitude, a far different line of conduct might reasonably 
be expected. I allude to the alarming increase of crime still per- 
petrated by the colored settlers, and who, in spite of the late numerous, 
harrowing, convicted examples, unhappily furnish the whole of the 

offenses now lihely to be brought before you / ' 

"But, sir, the wide-spreading current of crime among this unfor- 
tunate race was not to be easily arrested ; and I had long become so 
persuaded that it must sooner or later force itself upon the notice of 
the Legislature, that on feeling it my duty to draw the attention of 
my brother magistrates to the embarrassed state of the District finan- 
ces, and to the greater portion of its expenses arising from this disrep- 
utable source, I was led, in framing the report of a special committee 
(of which I was chairman) appointed to investigate our pecuniary 
difiiculties, to advert once more to the great undue proportion of our 
expenses arising from crime committed by so small a number of col- 
ored people, compared with the great body of the inhabitants, in the 
following strong but indisputable language : ' It is with pain and 
regret that your committee, in conclusion, feel bound to recur to the 
great additional burthen thrown upon the District, as well as the un- 
deserved stigma cast upon the general character of its population, 
whether native or immigrant British, by the late great influx of colored 
people of the worst description from the neighboring States — a great 
portion of whom appear to have no visible means of gaining a liveli- 
hood — and who, therefore, not only furnish a large proportion of the 
basest crimes perpetrated in the country, such as murder, rape, arson, 
burglary, and larceny, besides every other description of minor of- 
fense — untraceable to the color o^ the perpetrators in a miscellaneous 
published calendar; but also, besides the. constant trouble they entail 
upon magistrates who happen to reside in their neighborhood, produce 
a large portion of the debt incurred by the District, from the great 
number committed to and subsisted in prison, etc. ; and they would, 



.' MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 193 

witli all respect for the liberty of the subject, and the sincerest good 
will toward their African brethren generally — whom they would wish 
to regard with every kindly feeling, venture to suggest, for the con- 
sideration of Grovernment, whether any legislative check can possibly 
be placed upon the i-apid importation of the most worthless of this 
unfortunate race, such, as the good among themselves candidly lament, 
as has of late inundated this devoted section of the 'Province, to the 
great detriment of the claims of the poor emigrant from the mother 
country upon our consideration, the great additional and almost un- 
controllable increase of crime, and the proportionate demoralization 
of principle among the inhabitants of the country.' 

"Notwithstanding all these strenuous endeavors, added to the most 
serious and impressive admonitions to various criminals after convic- 
tion and sentence, no apparent change for the better occurred ; for at 
the Quarter Sessions of last January, the usual preponderance of 
negro crime struck me so forcibly as again to draw from me, in my 
charge to the Grand Jury, the following observations : ' I am ex- 
tremely sorry to be unable to congratulate you or the country on a 
light calendar, the matters to be brought before you embracing no 
less than three cases of larceny, and one of enticing soldiers to desert, 
besides several arising from that ever prolific source, assaults, etc. I 
can not, however, pass the fbrmer by altogether without once more 
emphatically remarking, that it is as much to the disgrace of the free 
colored settlers in our District, as it is creditable to the rest of our 
population, that the greater part of the culprits to be brought before 
us are still men of color : and I lament this the more, as I was some- 
what in hopes that the earnest admonitions that I had more than once 
felt it my duty to address to that race, would have been attended with 
some good eifect.' 

" In spite of all these reiterated, anxious endeavors, the amount of 
crime exhibited in the calendar of the following Quarter Sessions, in 
April last, consisted solely (I think,) of five cases of larceny, perpe- 
trated by negroes ; and at the late Assizes, held on the 20th instant, 
out of five criminal cases, one of enticing soldiers to desert, and two 
of theft, were, as usual, committed by men of color ! ! ! 

" Having thus completed a painful retrospect of the appalling- 
amount of crime committed by the colored population in the District 
at large, compared with the general mass of the white population, I 
now consider it my duty to advert more particularly to what has been 
passing more immediately under my own observation in the township 
of Colchester." 

13 



194 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The record from whieh wc quote, has, under this head, the state- 
ment of the township collector, as to the moral and social condition 
of the colored people of the township, in which he says, " that, in 
addition to the black women there were fourteen yellow ones, and fif- 
teen white ones — that they run together like beasts, and that he did 
not suppose one-third of them were married ; and further, that they 
would be a curse to this part of Canada, unless there is something 
done to put a stop to their settling among the white people." 

The Report of Col. Lachlan is very extensive, and embraces many 
topics connected with the question of negro immigration into Canada 
His response to Government led to further investigation, and to some 
legislative action in the Canadian Parliament. The latest recorded 
communications upon the subject, from his pen, are dated November 
9th, 1849, and June 4th, 1850, from which it appears that up to that 
date there had been no abatement of the hostile feeling of the whites 
toward the blacks, nor any improvement in the social and moral con- 
dition of the blacks themselves. 

In 1849, the Elgin Association went into operation. Its object 
was to concentrate the colored people at one point, and thus have 
them in a more favorable position for intellectual and moral culture. 
A large body of land was purchased in the Township of llaleigh, and 
offered for sale in small lots to colored settlers. The measui-e was 
strongly opposed, and called out expressions of sentiment adverse to 
it, from the people at large. A public meeting, held in Chatham, 
August 18th, 1849, thus expresssed itself: 

" The Imperial Parliament of Great Britain has forever banished 
slavery from the Empire. In common with all good men, we rejoice 
at the consummation of this immortal act; and we hope that all 
other nations may follow the example. Every member of the human 
family is entitled to certain rights and privileges, and no where on 
earth are they better secured, enjoyed, or more highly valued, than 
in Canada. Nature, however, has divided the same great family into 
distinct species, for good and wise purposes, and it is no less our inter- 
est, than it is our duty, to follow her dictates and obey her laws. Be- 
lieving this to be a sound and correct principle, as well as a moral 
and a Christian duty, it is with alarm we witness the fast increasing 
emigration and settlement among us of the African race ; and with 
pain and regret do we view the establishment of an association, the 
avowed object of which is to encourage the settlement in old, well- 
established communities, of a race of people which is destined by 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 195 

nature to be distinct and separate from us. It is also with a feeling 
of deep resentment that we look upon the selection of the Township 
of Raleigh, in this District, as the first portion of our beloved coun- 
try, which is to be cursed with a systematic organization for setting 
the laws of nature at defiance. Do communities in other portions 
of Canada feel that the presence of the negro among them is an an- 
noyance ? Do they feel that the increase of the colored people among 
them, and amalgamation, its necessary and hideous attendant, are 
evils which require to be checked ? With what a feeling of horror 
would the people of any of the old settled townships of the eastern 
portion of this Province, look upon a measure which had for its 
avowed object the efi"ect of introducing several hundreds of Africans 
into the very heart of their neighborhood, their families interspers- 
ing themselves among them, upon every vacant lot of land, their 
children mingling in their schools, and all claiming to be admitted 
not only to political, but to social privileges? and when we reflect, 
too, that many of them must, from necessity, be the very worst spe- 
cies of that neglected race — the fugitives from justice — how much 
more revolting must the scheme appear ? How then can you adopt 
such a measure? We beseech our fellow-subjects to pause before 
they embark in such an enterprise, and ask themselves, ' whether 
they are doing by us as they would wish us to do unto them.' .... 
Surely our natural position is irksome enough, without submitting to 
a measure which not only holds out a premium for filling up our 
district with a race of people upon whom we can not look without a 
feeling of repulsion, and who, having been brought up in a state of 
bondage and servility, are totally ignorant both of their social and 
political duties ; but at the same time makes it the common receptacle 
into which all other portions of the Province are to void the devotees 
of misery and crime. Look at your prisons and your penitentiary, 
and behold the fearful preponderance of their black over their white 

inmates in proportion to the population of each We have no 

desire to show hostility toward the colored people, no desire to banish 
them from the Province. On the contrary, we are willing to assist in 
any well-devised scheme for their moral and social advancement. Our 
only desire is, that they shall be separated from the whites, and that 
no encouragement shall hereafter be given to the migration of the 
colored man from the United States, or any where else. The idea 
that we have brought the curse upon ourselves, through the estab- 
lishment of slavery by our ancestors, is false. As Canadians, we have 



196 PULPIT POLITICS. 

yet to learn that we ought to be made a vicarious atonement foi 
European sins. 

" Canadians : The hour has arrived when we should arouse from 
our lethargy ; when we should gather ourselves together in our might, 
and resist the onward progress of an evil which threatens to entail 
upon future generations a thousand curses. Now is the day. A few 
short years will put it beyond our power. Thousands and tens of 
thousands of American negroes, with the aid of the abolition socie- 
ties in the States, and with the countenance given them by our phi- 
lanthropic institutions, will continue to pour into Canada, if resist- 
ance is not offered. Many of you who live at a distance from this 
frontier, have no conception either of the number or the character of 
these emigrants, or of their poisonous effect upon the moral and social 
habits of a community. You listen with active sympathy to every 
thing narrated of the sufferings of the poor African ; your feelings 
are enlisted, and your purse strings unloosed, and this often by the 
hypocritical declamation of some self-styled philanthropist. Under 
such influences many of you, in our large cities and towns, form your- 
selves into societies, and, without reflection, you supply funds for the 
support of schemes prejudicial to the best interests of our country. 
Against such proceedings, and especially against any and every 
attempt to settle any township in this District with negroes, we sol- 
emnly protest, and we call upon our countrymen, in all parts of the 
Province, to assist in our opposition. 

" Fellow Christians : Let us forever maintain the sacred dogma, 
that all men have equal, natural, and inalienable rights. Let us do 
every thing in our power, consistent with international polity and 
justice, to abolish the accursed system of slavery in the neighboring 
Republic. But let us not, through a mistaken zeal to abate the evil 
of another land, entail upon ourselves a misery which every enlight- 
ened lover of his country must mourn. Let the slaves of the United 
States be free, but let it be in their own country. Let us not coun- 
tenance their further introduction among us ; in a word, let the peo- 
ple of the United States bear the burthen of their own sins. 

" What has already been done, can not now be avoided ; but it is 
not too late to do justice to ourselves, and retrieve the errors of the 
past. Let a suitable place be provided by the Government, to which 
the colored people may be removed, and separated from the whites, 
and in this scheme we will cordially join. We owe it to them, but 
how much more do we owe it to ourselves? But we implore you that 
you will not, either by your counsel or your pecuniary aid, assist 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 197 

thoso wlio have projected the association for the settlement of a horde 
of ignorant slaves in the town of Raleigh. It is one of the oldest 
and most densely-settled townships, in the very center of our new and 
promising District of Kent, and we feel that this scheme, if carried 
into operation, will have the effect of hanging like a dead weight 
upon our rising prosperity. What is our case to-day, to-morrow may 
be yours ; join us, then, in endeavoring to put a stojD to what is not 
only a general evil, but in this case an act of unwarrantable injustice; 
and when the time may come when you shall be similarly situated to 
us, we have no doubt that, like us, you will cry out, and your appeal 
shall not be in vain." 

On the 3d of September, 1849, the colored people of Toronto, Can- 
ada, held a meeting, in which they responded at length to the fore- 
going address. The spirit of the meeting can be divined from the 
following resolutions, which were unanimously passed : 

" 1st. Resolved, That we, as a portion of the inhabitants of Canada, 
conceive it to be our imperative duty to give an expression of senti- 
ment in reference to the proceedings of the late meeting held at Chat- 
ham, denying the right of the colored people to settle where they 
please. 

" 2d. Resolved, That we spurn with contempt and burning indigna- 
tion, any attempt, on the part of any person, or persons, to thrust us 
from the general bulk of society, and place us in a separate and dis- 
tinct classification, such as is expressly implied in an address issued 
from the late meeting above alluded to. 

3d. Resolved, That the principle of selfishness, as exemplified iu 
the originators of the resolutions and address, we detest, as we do 
similar ones emanating from a similar source ; and we can clearly see 
the workings of a corrupt and depraved heart, arrayed in hostility to 
the heaven-born principle of Uherty, in its broadest and most unre- 
stricted sense." 

These resolutions indicate that the colored people of Canada 
had been well instructed in the dogmas of Abolitionism. 

On the 9th of October, 1849, the Municipal Council of the West- 
ern District adopted a Memorial to His Excellency, the Governor 
General, protesting against the proposed Elgin Association, in which 
the following language occurs: 

" Clandestine petitions have been got up, principally, if 

not wholly^ signed by colored people, in order to mislead Government 



198 PULPIT POLITICS. 

and the Elgin x\ssociation. These petitions do not embody the sen- 
timents or feelings of the respectable, intelligent, and industrious yeo- 
manry of the Western District. We can assure your Excellency that 
any such statement is false, that there is but one feeling, and that is 
of disgust and hatred, that they, the negroes, should be allowed to 
settle in any township where there is a white settlement. Our lan- 
guage is strong ; but when we look at the expressions used at a late 
meeting held by the colored people of Toronto, openly avowing the 
propriety of amalgamation, and stating that it must, and will, and 
shall continue, we can not avoid so doing The increased im- 
migration of foreign negroes into this part of the Province is truly 
alarming. We can not omit mentioning some facts for the corrobora- 
tion of what we have stated. The negroes, who form at least one- 
third of the inhabitants of the township of Colchester, attended the 
township meeting for the election of parish and township ofl&cers, and 
insisted upon their right to vote, which was denied them by every 
individual white man at the meeting. The consequence was, that the 
Chairman of the meeting was prosecuted and thrown into heavy costs, 
which costs were paid by subscription from white inhabitants. In 
the same township of Colchester, as well as in many others, the inhab- 
itants have not been able to get schools in many school sections, in 
consequence of the negroes insisting on their right of sending their 
children to such schools. No white man will ever act with them in 
any public capacity ; this fact is so glaring, that no sheriff in this 
Province would dare to summons colored men to do jury duty. That 
such things have been done in other quarters of the British domin- 
ions we are well aware of, but we are convinced that the Canadians 
will never tolerate such conduct." 

But here we have testimony of a later date. Hon. Colonel 
Prince, member of the Canadian Parliament in 1857, had resided 
among the colored people of the Western District; and, like other 
humane men, had sympathized with them, at the outset, and shown 
them many favors. Time and observation changed his views, and, 
in the course of his parliamentary duties, we find him taking a stand 
adverse to the further increase of the negro population in Canada. 
Hear him, as reported at the time : 

" On the order of the day for the third reading of the emigrants' 
law amendment bill being called, Hon. Col. Prince said he was wish- 
ful to move a rider to the measure. The black people who infested 
the land were the greatest curse to the Province. The lives of the 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 199 

people of tlie West were made wretched by the inundation of these 
animals, and many of the largest farmers in the county of Kent have 
been compelled to leave their beautiful farms, because of the pestilen- 
tial swarthy swarms. What were these wretches fit for? Nothing. 
They cooked our victuals and shampooned us ; but who would not 
rather that these duties should be performed by white men ? The 
blacks were a worthless, useless, thriftless set of beings — they were 
too indolent, lazy, and ignorant to work, too proud to be taught ; and 
not only that, if the criminal calendar of the country was examined, 
it would be found that they were a majority of the criminals. They 
were so detestable that unless some method were adopted of prevent- 
ing their influx into this country by the 'underground railroad,' the 
people of the West would be obliged to drive them out by open 
violence. The bill before the House imposed a caj)itation tax upon 
emigrants from Europe, and the object of his motion was to levy a 
similar tax upon blacks who came hither from the States. He now 
moved, seconded by Mr. Patton, that a capitation tax of 5s for adults, 
3s 9cZ for children above one year and under fourteen years of age, be 
levied on persons of color emigrating to Canada from any foreign 
country. 

" Ought not the Western men to be protected from the rascalities 
and villainies of the black wretches ? He found these men with fire 
and food and lodging, when they were in need ; and he would be bound 
to say that the black men of the county of Essex would speak well 
of him in this respect. But he could not admit them as being equal 
to white men ; and, after a long and close observation of human nature, 
he had come to the conclusion that the black man was born to and 
intended for slavery, and that he was fit for nothing else. [Sensation.] 
Honorable gentlemen might try to groan him down, but he was not to 
be moved by mawkish sentiment, and he was persuaded that they 
might as well try to change the spots of the leopard as to make the 
black a good citizen. He had told black men so, and the lazy rascals 
had shrugged their shoulders and wished they had never run away 
from their ' good old massa ' in Kentucky. If there was anything 
unchristian in what he had proposed, he could not see it, and he 
feared that he was not born a Christian." 

The Windsor Herald, of July 3d, 1857, contains the proceedings 
of an indignation meeting, held by the colored people of Toronto, at 
which they denounced Colonel Prince in unmeasured terms of re- 
proach. The same paper contains the reply of the Colonel, copied 



200 PULPIT POLITICS. 

from the Toronto Colonist; and it is given entire, as a specimen of the 
spicy times they have, in Canada, over the negro question. The editor 
remarks, in rehition to the reply of Colonel Prince, that it has given 
general satisfaction in his neighborhood. It is as follows: 

" Dear Sir: — Your valuable paper of yesterday has afforded me a 
rich treat and not a little fun in the report of an indignation meeting 
of 'the colored citizens' of Toronto, held for the purpose of censuring 
mc. Perhaps I ought not to notice their proceedings — perhaps it 
would be more becoming in me to allow them to pass at once into the 
oblivion which awaits them ; but as it is the fashion in this country 
not unfrequently to assume that to be true which appears in print 
against an individual, unless he flatly denies the accusation, I shall, at 
least, for once, condescend to notice these absurd proceedings. They 
deal in generalities, and so shall I. Of the colored citizens of Toronto 
I know little or nothing ; no doubt, some are respectable enough in 
their way, and perform the inferior duties belonging to their station 
tolerably well. Here they are kept in order — in their proper place — 
but their ' proceedings ' are evidence of their natural conceit, their 
vanity, and their ignorance ; and in them the cloven foot appears, 
and evinces what they would do, if they could. I believe that in this 
city, as in some others of our Province, they are looked upon as nec- 
essary evils, and only submitted to because white servants are so 
scarce. But I now deal with these fellows as a body, and I pronounce 
them to be, as such, the greatest curse ever inflicted upon the two 
magnificent western counties which I have the honor to represent in 
the Legislative Council of this Province ! and few men have had the 
experience of them that I have. Among the many estimable qualities 
they possess, a systematic habit of lying is not the least prominent ; 
and the 'colored citizens' aforesaid seem to partake of that quality in 
an eminent degree, because in their famous Resolutions -they roundly 
assert that during the Rebellion ' I walked arm and arm with colored 
men' — that 'I owe my election to the votes of colored men' — and 
that I have ' accumulated much earthly gains,' as a lawyer, among 
•colored clients.' All Lies! Lies! Lies! from beginning to end. I 
admit that one company of blacks did belong to my contingent bat- 
tallion, but they made the very worst of soldiers, and were, compara- 
tively speaking, unsusceptible of drill or discipline, and were con- 
spicuous for one act only — a stupid sentry shot the son of one of out 
oldest colonels, under a mistaken notion that he was thereby doing 
his duty. But I certainly never did myself the honor of 'walking 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 201 

arm-in-arm ' with any of the colored gentlemen of that distinguished 
corps. Then, as to my election. Few, very few blacks voted for me. 
I never canvassed them, and hence, I suppose, they supported, as a 
body, my opponent. They took compassion upon ' a monument of 
injtired innocence,'' and they sustained the monument for a while, upon 
the pedestal their influence erected. But the monument fell, and the 
fall proved that such influence was merely ephemeral, and it sank into 
iasignificant nothingness, as it should, and I hope ever will, do ; or 
God help this noble land ! Poor Blackics ! Be not so bold or so 
conceited or so insolent, hereafter, I do beseech you. 

" Then how rich I have btjcome among my ' colored clients ! ' I 
assert, without the fear of contradiction, that I have been the friend, 
the steady friend of our western ' Darkies ' for more than twenty 
years ; and amidst difiiculties and troubles innumerable, (for they are a 
litigious race,) T have been their adviser, and I never made twenty 
pounds out of them in that long period ! The fact is that the poor 
creatures had never the ability to pay a lawyer's fee. 

"It has been my misfortune, and the misfortune of my fiimily, to 
live among those blacks, (and they have lived iipon us,) for twenty- 
four years. I have employed Jiundrcds of them, and, with the excep- 
tion of one, (named Richard Hunter,) not one has ever done for us 
a week's honest labor. I have taken them into my service, have fed 
and clothed them, year after year, on their arrival from the States ; and 
in return I have generally found them rogues and thieves, and a grace- 
less, worthless, thriftless, lying set of vagabonds. That is my very 
plain and very simple description of the darkies as a body, and it 
would be indorsed by all the western white men with very few ex- 
ceptions. 

" I have had scores of their George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons, 
James Madisons, as well as their Dinahs, and Gleniras, and Lavinias, 
in my service, and I understand them thoroughly ; and I include the 
whole batch (old Richard Hunter excepted) in the category above 
described. To conclude: You 'gentlemen of color,' East and West, 
and especially you ' colored citizens of Toronto,' I thank you for 
having given me an opportunity to publish my opinion of your race. 
Call another indignation meeting, and there make greater fools of 
yourselves than you did at the last, and then ' to supper with what 
appetite you may.' " * 

* See "Cotton is King,"' for full details, pp. 177 to 196. 



202 PULPIT POLITICS. 

What was true of the colored population of the Western Dis- 
trict of Canada, in 1841, •while Colonel Lachlan filled the chair of 
the Quarter Sessions, seems to be equally true in 1859. The 
Essex Advocate contains the following extract from the Present- 
ment of the Grand Jury, at the Essex Assizes, November 17, 
1859, in reference to the Jail : 

" We are sorry to state to your Lordship the great prevalence of 
the colored race among its occupants, and beg to call attention to an 
accompanying document from the municipal Council and inhabitants 
of the township of Anderdon, which we recommend to your Lord- 
ship's serious consideration : 

" ' To the Grand Jury of the County of Essex, in Inquest assembled: 
We, the undersigned inhabitants of the Township of Anderdon, re- 
spectfully wish to call the attention of the Grand Inquest of the county 
of Essex to the fearful state of crime in our township. That there exists 
organized bands of thieves, too lazy to work, who nightly plunder our 
property ! That nearly all of us, more or less, have suffered losses ; 
and that for the last two years the stealing of sheep has been most 
alarming, one individual having had nine stolen within that period. We 
likewise beg to call your attention to the fact, that seven colored per- 
sons are committed to stand trial at the present Assizes on the charge 
of sheep stealing, and that the warrant is out against the eighth, all 
from the town of Anderdon. We beg distinctly to be understood, 
that though we are aware that nine-tenths of the crimes committed in 
the County of Essex, according to the population, are so committed 
by the colored people, yet we willingly extend the hand of fellowship 
and kindness to the emancipated slave, whom Great Britain has 
granted an asylum to in Canada. We, therefore, hope the Grand 
Jury of the County of Essex will lay the statement of our case before 
his Lordship, the Judge, at the present Assizes, that some measure 
may be taken by the Government to protect us and our property, or 
persons of capital will be driven from the country.' " 

The Judge, in afterward alluding to this Presentment, remarked 
that — 

" He was not surprised at finding prejudice existing against them 
(the negroes) among the respectable portion of the people, for they 
were indolent, shiftless, and dishonest, and unworthy of the sympathy 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 203 

that some mistaken parties extended to them; they would not work 
when opportunity was presented, but preferred subsisting by thiev- 
ing from respectable farmers, and begging from those benevolently 
inclined." 

Here, now, are the results of the experiments made in the 
Northern States and in Canada for the elevation of the colored 
people who had gained their freedom. The testimony relating to 
their condition in Canada is all taken from the olBScial action of 
its public officers, or the declarations of its public men. All these 
witnesses are decided abolitionists. The testimony in relation to 
their condition in the United States is also taken from official 
sources, or the declarations of abolitionists. 

We have included the free States and Canada under one head, 
because of the sameness of origin of their colored population; 
and because the evangelization of the Africans, thus thrown upon 
the care of British and American abolitionists, has been the last 
thing they seem disposed to undertake. 

It must be apparent to the most superficial observer, when 
taking into account the condition of the free colored people, in 
both Canada and the free States, that their conduct has rendered 
the prospects of the African race, at large, tenfold more dark 
and gloomy than it was thirty years ago. And when the results 
here are coupled w'ith those in the West Indies, generally, it must 
be obvious to all, that what has been attempted for the colored 
race is wholly impracticable ; and that, in its present low^ state 
of advancement from barbarism, the attainment of civil and social 
equality with the enlightened white races, is utterly impossible. 
The means employed have been wholly inadequate to the ends 
proposed to be attained. 

But then, on the other hand, we find such evidences of religious 
progress among the colored people, as to afford ample reasons for 
believing that their moral elevation is practicable ; but practica- 
ble, not by their neglect, as hitherto prevailing, but only by their 
careful training under the control of enlightened teachers Avho 
will subject them to proper moral restraints. How long it will 
take to elevate the black race, by such agencies, we shall not 
venture to say; but of this we feel assured: that the neglect to 
which those already free have been subjected, in the midst of 



204 PULPIT POLITICS. 

their professed friends, English and American, if continued, will 
forever leave them a degraded people. 

9. Tlie Obstacles to African Evangelization in connection with 
American Slavery. 

We come, now, to the examination of the progress of the Gos- 
pel in the midst of American slavery. The results have been 
partially stated in the course of the preceding investigations. 
But no accurate statistics, excepting of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, were available for the earlier periods of slavery ; and, 
indeed, we have none from other churches, stating their colored 
membership, until of late years. It now appears that the Meth- 
odists and Baptists have been most successful among the colored 
people. In 1859, the number of colored converts in the South 
were stated to be 453,000, of which the Methodists had 203,000 
and the Baptists 175,000 — all the other denominations having 
but 75,000. The membership of the Methodist Church, among 
the colored people, may, therefore, be estimated as equaling con- 
siderably less than one-half of the total colored converts in the 
slave States. These converts, however, are not all to be taken 
as slaves, as, doubtless, the free colored people in the slave 
States aiford some church members ; but the whole number are 
within the jurisdiction of slavery, and all aflford evidence that 
Christianity is not inoperative in the midst of that institution. 

The references made, in the course of our investigations, to the 
work of African evangelization have not been so full and general 
as to convey a true idea of the character and present condition 
of that work in the United States. It may be remarked, in pro- 
ceeding to the execution of the task of giving more extended 
details, that the Reports from the South, for 18G1, were expected, 
but have not reached us, on account of the stoppage of the mails. 
This, however, will not materially affect the interest of our pages, 
as the older Reports embrace all that is necessary to understand 
the nature and extent of the missionary work in that field. 

The New York Evangelist, 1858, says : 

" The South Carolina Metliodist Conference have a missionary 
committee devoted entirely to promoting the religious iustruetion of 
the slave population, which has been in existence twenty-six years. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 205 

Tlie Report of the last year shows a greater degree of activity than is 
generally known. They have twenty-six missionary stations in which 
thirty-two missionaries are employed. The Report affirms that pub- 
lic opinion in South Carolina is decidedly in favor of the religious 
instruction of slaves, and that it has become far more general and 
systematic than formerly. It also claims a great degree of success 
to have attended the labors of the missionaries." 

The Report of the Missionary Board, of the Louisiana Conference, 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1855, says : 

" It is stated upon good authority, that the number of colored 
members in the Church South, exceeds that of the entire membership 
of all the Protestant missions in the world. What an enterprise is 
this committed to our care ! The position we, of the Methodist 
Church South, have taken for the African, has, to a great extent, 
cut us off from the sympathy of the Christian Church throughout 
the world ; and it behooves us to make good this position in the sight 
of Grod, of angels, of men, of churches, and to our own consciences, 
by presenting before the throne of His glory multitudes of the souls 
of these benighted ones abandoned to our care, as the seals of our 
ministry. Already Louisiana promises to be one vast plantation. 
Let us — we must — gird ourselves for this Heaven-born enterprise 
of supplying the pure Gospel to the slave. The great question is, 
How can the greatest number be preached to ? The building; road- 
side chapels is as yet the best solution of it. In some cases planters 
build so as to accommodate adjoining plantations, and by this means 
the preacher addresses three hundred or more slaves, instead of one 
hundred or less. Economy of this kind is absolutely essential where 
the labor of the missionary is so much needed and demanded. 

" On the Lafourche and Bayou Black Mission-work, several chapels 
are in process of erection, upon a plan which enables the slave, as his 
master, to make an offering toward building a house of Grod. Instead 
of money, the hands subscribe labor. Timber is plenty ; many of the 
servants are carpenters. Upon many of the plantations are saw mills. 
Here is much material ; what hindereth that we should build a church 
on every tenth plantation? Let us maintain our policy steadily. 
Time and diligence are required to effect substantial good, especially 
in this department of labor. Let us continue to ask for buildings 
adapted to the worship of God, and set apart j to urge, when prac- 



206 PULPIT POLITICS. 

ticable, the preaching to blacks in the presence of their masters, their 
overseers, and the neighbors generally." * 

" One of the effects of the great revival among colored people has 
been the establishment of a regular system of prayer-meetings foi 
their benefit. Meetings are held every night during the week at the 
tobacco factories, the proprietors of which have been kind enough to 
place those edifices at the disposal of the colored brethren. The 
owners of the several factories preside over these meetings, and tho 
most absolute good conduct is exhibited." f 

" In Newbern, North Carolina, the slaves have a large church of 
their own, which is well attended. They pay a salary of $500 pei 
annum to their white minister. They have likewise a negro preacher 
in their employ, whom they purchased from his master. J " 

And Newbern in this respect is not isolated. For in nearly every 
town of any size in the Southern States, the colored people have their 
churches, and, what is more than is always known at the North, they 
sustain their churches and pay their ministers. § 

The Synod of Virginia, in 1858, passed the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That the religious instruction of our colored population 
be affectionately and earnestly commended to tbe ministry and elder- 
ship of our churches generally, as opening to us a field of most ob- 
ligatory and interesting Christian effort, in which we are called to 
labor more faithfully and fully, by our regard for our social interests, 
as well as by the higher considerations of duty to God and the souls 
of our fellow men. || 

The following extracts are copied from the Kew York Ohserver 
of 1859 : 

The Presbytery of Roanoke, Virginia, (0. S.,) has addressed a 
Pastoral letter, on the instruction of the colored people, to the 
churches under its care, and ordered the same to be read in all the 
churches of the Presbytery, in those that are vacant, as well as where 
there al-e pastors or stated supplies. It commences by saying : 
" Among the important interests of the kingdom of our Lord Jesua 

* New York Observer, 1856. 

t Lynchburgh (Va.) Courier, quoted by African Repository, January, 1858. 

X Southern Monitor, quoted by African Repository, January, 1858. 

g Express, quoted by African Repository, January, 1858. 

II African Repository. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 207 

Christ, which have claimed our special attention since the organiza- 
tion of the Presbytery in April last — that the work of the Lord 
may be vigorously and efficiently carried forward within our bounds — 
the religious instruction of the colored people is hardly to be placed 
second to any other." 

After speaking of the obstacles and encouragements to the work, 
it gives the following statistics : 

' " In the Presbytery of Charleston, South Carolina, 1,637 out of 
2,889 members, or considerably over one-half, are colored. In the 
whole Synod of South Carolina, 5,009 out of 13,074 are colored mem- 
bers. The Presbyteries of Mississippi and Central Mississippi, of 
Tuscaloosa and South Alabama, of Georgia, of Concord and Fayette- 
ville, also show many churches with large proportions of colored 
communicants, from one-third to one-seventh of the whole. Our 
own Presbytery reports 276 out of 1,737 members. In the Avhole 
of the above-mentioned bodies, there are 9,076 colored out of 33,667 
communicants. Among the churches of these Presbyteries, we find 
twenty with an aggregate colored membership of 3,600, or an average 
of 130 each. We find also such large figures as these, 260, 333, 356, 
525 ! These facts speak for themselves, and forbid discouragement." 

Speaking of the obligations to instruct this class, the letter says : 

" But these people are among us, at our doors, in our fields, and 
around our firesides ! If they need instruction, then the command 
of our Lord, and every obligation of benevolence, call us to the work 
of teaching them, with all industry, the doctrines of Christ. The 
first and kindest outgoings of our Christian compassion should be 
toward them. They are not only near us, but are also entirely de- 
pendent upon us. As to all means of securing religious privileges 
for themselves, and as to energy and self-directing power, they are 
but children, forced to look to their masters for every supply. From 
this arises an obligation, at once imperative and of most solemn and 
momentous significance to us, to make thorough provision for their 
religious instruction, to the full extent that we are able to provide it 
for ourselves. This obligation acquires great additional force when 
it is further considered, that besides proximity and dependence, they 
are indeed memhers of our ' households.' As the three hundred and 
eighteen ' trained servants ' of Abraham were ' born in his own house ; ' 
I. e., were born and bred as members of his household, so are our ser- 
vants. Of course, no argument is needed to show that every man is 



208 PULPIT POLITICS. 

bound by high and sacred obligations, for the discharge of which he 
must give account, to provide his family suitably, or to the extent of 
his ability, with the means of grace and salvation." 

After dwelling on the duties of the ministry, the letter goes on : 

" But the work of Christianizing our colored population can never 
be accomplished by the labors of the ministry alone, unaided by the 
hearty co-operation of families, by carrying on a system of home in- 
struction. We m,vst begin with the children. For if the children of 
our servants be left to themselves during their early years, this neg- 
lect must of necessity beget two enormous evils. Evil habits will be 
rapidly acquired and strengthened ; since if children are not learning 
good, they will be learning what is bad. And having thus grown up 
both ignorant and vicious, they will have no inclination to go to the 
Lord's house ; or if they should go, their minds will be found so 
dark, so entirely unacquainted with the rudimentnl language and 
truths of the Gospel, that much of the preaching must at first prove 
unintelligible, unprofitable at the time, and so uninteresting as to 
discourage further attendance. In every regard, therefore, masters 
are bound to see that religious instruction is provided at home for 
their people, especially for the young. 

" If there be no other to undertake the work, (the mistress, or the 
children of the family,) the master is bound to deny himself and dis- 
charge the duty. It is for him to see that the thing is properly done ; 
for the whole responsibility rests on him at last. It usually, how- 
ever, devolves upon the mistress, or upon the younger members of 
the family, where there are children qualified for it, to perform this 
service. Some of our young men, and, to their praise beitsjpoken, still 
more of our young women, have willingly given themselves to this 
self-denying labor ; in aid of their parents, or as a duty which they 
themselves owe to Christ their Redeemer, and to their fellow-crea- 
tures. We take this occasion, gladly, to bid all these ' God speed ' 
in their work of love. Co-workers together with us, we praise you 
for this. We bid you take courage. Let no dullness, indifference, 
or neglect, weary out your patience. You are laboring for Christ, 
and for precious souls. You are doing a work the importance of 
which eternity will fully reveal. You will be blessed, too, in your 
deed even now. This labor will prove to you an important means 
of grace. You will have something to pray for, and will enjoy the 
pleasing consciousness that you are not idlers in the Lord's vineyard. 
You will be winning stars for your crowns of rejoicing through eter- 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 209 

nity. Grant that it will cost you much self-denial. Can you, not- 
withstanding, consent to see these immortal beings growing up in 
ignorance and vice, at your very doors ? 

" The methods of carrying on the home instruction are various, and 
we are abundantly supplied with the needful facilities. We need not 
name the reading of the Bible ; and judiciously selected sermons, to 
be read to the adults when they can not attend preaching, should not 
be omitted. Catechetical instruction, by means of such excellent aids 
as our own 'Catechism for young children,' and 'Jones' Catechism of 
Scripture doctrine and practice,' will of course be resorted to ; together 
with teaching them hymns and singing with them. The reading to 
them, for variety, such engaging and instructive stories as are found 
in the ' Children's column ' of some of our best religious papers ; and 
suitable Sabbath-school, or other juvenile books, such as, ' The Peep 
of Day,' ' Line upon Line,' etc., will, in many cases, prove an excellent 
aid, in imbuing their minds with religious truth, blasters should not 
spare expense or trouble^ to provide liberally these various helps to 
those who take this work in hand, to aid and encourage them to the 
utmost in their self-denying toil. 

"Brethren, the time is propitious to urge your attention to this im- 
portant duty. A deep and constantly increasing interest in the work, 
is felt throughout the South. Just at this time, also, extensively 
throughout portions of our territory, an unusual awakening has been 
showing itself among the colored people. It becomes us, and it is of 
vital importance on every account, by judicious instruction, both to 
guide the movement, and to improve the opportunity. 

" We commend this whole great interest to the Divine blessing ; 
and, under God, to your conscientious reflection, to devise the proper 
ways ; and to your faithful Christian zeal, to accomplish whatever 
your wisdom may devise and approve." 

The Mobile Daily Tribune, in referring to the religious training of 
the slaves, says : * 

" Few persons are aware of the efforts that are continually in pro- 
gress, in a quiet way, in the various Southern States, for the moral 
and religious improvement of the negroes ; of the number of clergy- 
men, of good families, accomplished education, and often of a high 
degree of talent, who devote their whole time and energies to this 
work ; or of the many laymen — almost invariably slaveholders them- 

* Quoted in African Repository, April, 1858. 

14 



210 PULPIT POLITICS. 

selves — ■who sustain them by their j^uvses and by their assistance aa 
catechists, Sunday-school teachers, and the like. These men do not 
make platform speeches, or talk in public on the subject of their 
'mission,' or theorize about the 'planes' on which they stand: they 
are too busy for this, but they work on quietly in labor and self- 
denial, looking for a sort of reward very diflFerent from the applause 
bestowed upon stump agitators. Their work is a much less noisy one, 
but its results will be far more momentous. 

"We have very limited information on this subject, for the very 
reasons just mentioned, but enough to give some idea of the zeal with 
which these labors are prosecuted by the various Christian denomina- 
tions. Thus, among the Old School Presbyterians it is stated that 
about one hundred "ministers are engaged in the religious instruction 
of the negroes exclusively. In South Carolina alone there are forty- 
five churches or chapels of the Episcopal Church, appropriated ex- 
clusively to negroes ; thirteen clergymen devote to them their whole 
time, and twenty-seven a portion of it ; and one hundred and fifty 
persons of the same faith are engaged in imparting to them catecheti- 
cal instruction. There are other States which would furnish similar 
statistics if they could be obtained. 

" It is in view of such facts as these, that one of our cotemporaries, 
(the Philadelphia Inquirer,') though not free from a certain degree 
of anti-slavery proclivity, makes the following candid admission : 

"'The introduction of Aftican slavery into the colonies of North 
x\merica, though doubtless brought about by wicked means, may in 
the end accomplish great good to Africa; a good, perhaps, to be 
eflPected in no other way. Hundreds and thousands have already been 
saved, temporally and spiritually, who otherwise must have perished. 
Through these and their descendants it is, that civilization and Chris- 
tianity have been sent back to the perishing millions of Africa.' " 

The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the 

Methodist Kpisoopal Church South, 1859, says : 

" In our colored missions great good has been accomplished by the 
labors of the self-sacrificing and zealous missionaries. 

" This seems to be at home our most appropriate field of labor. By 
our position we have direct access to those for whom these missions 
are established. Our duty and obligation in regard to them are 
evident. Increased facilities are aflforded us, and open doors invite 
our entrance and full occupancy. The real value of these missions is 
often overlooked or forgotten by Church census-takers and statistic- 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 211 

reporters of our beuevolent associations. We can but repeat that 
this field, which seems almost, by common consent, to be left for our 
occupancy, is one of the most important and promising in the history 
of missions. At home even its very humility obscures, and abroad a 
mistaken philanthropy repudiates its claims. But still the fact exists; 
and when we look at the large number of faithful, pious, and self- 
sacrificing missionaries engaged in the woi-k, the wide field of their 
labors, and the happy thousands who have been savingly converted 
to God through their instrumentality, we can but perceive the pro- 
priety and justice of assigning to these missions the prominence we 
have. Indeed, the subject assumes an importance beyond the con- 
ception even of those more directly engaged in this great work, when 
it is remembered that these missions absolutely number more converts 
to Christianity, according to statistics given, than all the members of 
all other missionary societies combined." 

The Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South, in their Report for 1859, say : 

" It is gratifying that so much has been done for the evangelization 
of this people. In addition to the missions presented in our report, 
thousands of this people are served by preachers in charge of circuits 
and stations. But still a great work remains to be accomplished 
among the negroes within your limits. New missions are needed, and 
increased attention to the work in this department generally demand- 
ed. Heaven devolves an immense responsibility upon us with refer- 
ence to these sable sons of Ham. Providence has thrown them in our 
midst, not merely to be our household and agricultural servants, but 
to be served by us with the blessed Gospel of the Son of God. Let 
us then, in the name of Him who made it a special sign of his Mes- 
siahship that the poor had the Gospel preached unto them — let us 
in his name go forth, bearing the bread of life to these poor among 
us, and opening to them all the sources of consolation and encourage- 
ment afforded by the religion of Jesus." 

The Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, 
in their Report for 1859, say : 

" At the last Conference, Gideon W. Cottingham and David W. Fly 
were appointed Conference African missionaries, whose duties were to 
travel throughout the Conference, visit the planters in person, and 
organize missions in regions unsupplied. They report an extensive 



212 PULPIT POLITICS. 

field open, and truly white unto the harvest, and have succeeded in 
organizing several important missions. All the planters, questioned 
upon the subject, were willing to give the missionary access to their 
servants, to preach and catechize, not only on the Sabbath, but during 
the week. And this willingness was not confined to the professors 
alone, but the deepest interest was displayed by many who make no 
pretensions to religion whatever. An interest shown not merely by 
giving the missionary access to their servants, but by their pledging 
their prompt support. The servants themselves receive the word with 
the utmost eagerness. They are hungering for the bread of life ; our 
tables are loaded. Shall not these starving souls be fed ? Cases of 
appalling destitution are found : numbers who heard for the first time 
the word of life, listened eagerly to the wonders it unfolded. The 
Greeks are truly at our doors, heathens growing up in our midst, 
revival fire flames around them, a polar frost within their hearts. God 
help the Church to take care of these perishing souls ! Our anniver- 
saries are usually scenes of unmingled joy. With our sheaves in our 
hands, we come from the harvest field, and though sad that so little 
has been done, yet rejoicing that we have the privilege of laying any 
pledge of devotion upon the altar." 

The Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 
their Eeport for 1859, say : 

" We are cheered to see a growing interest among our planters and 
slave-owners in our domestic missions. Still that interest is not what 
the importance of the subject demands. While few are willing to bar 
their servants all Gospel privileges, there is a great want in many 
places of suitable houses for public worship. Too many masters 
think that to permit the missionary to come on the plantation, and 
preach in the gin, or mill, or elsewhere, as circumstances may dictate, 
is their only duty, especially if the missionary gets his bread. None 
of the attendant circumstances of a neat church, and suitable Sunday 
apparel, etc., to cheer and gladden the heart on the holy Sabbath, and 
cause its grateful thanksgiving to go up as clouds of incense before 
Him, are thought necessary by many masters. 

"Notwithstanding, we are cheered by a brightening prospect. — 
Christian masters are building churches for their servants. Owners 
in many places are adopting the wise policy of erecting their churches 
so as to bring two, three, or more plantations together for preaching. 
This plan is so consonant with the Gospel economy, and so advan- 
tageous every way, that it must become the uniform practice of all 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 213 

oui' missionary operations among the slaves. Our late Conference 

wisely adopted a resolution, encouraging the building of churches 

for the accommodation of several plantations together, wherever it 
can be done." 

The South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
in their Report for 1859, say : 

" Meanwhile the increasing claims of the destitute colored popula- 
tion must not be ignored. New fields are opening before us, the 
claims of which are pressed with an earnestness which nothing but 
deeply-felt necessity could dictate. And the question is pressed upon 
us, What shall we do? Must not the contributions of the Church 
be more liberal and more S3^stematic? Must not the friends of the 
enterprise become more zealous ? Will not the wealthy patrons of 
our society, whose people are served, contribute a sum equal in the 
aggregate to the salary of the missionaries who serve their people ? 
This done, and every claim urged upon your Board shall be honored. 

" This is wondrous work ! God loves it. honors it, blesses it ! He 
has crowned it with success. The old negro has abandoned his le- 
gendary rites, and has sought and found favor with God through 
Jesus Christ. The catechumens have received into their hearts the 
gracious instructions given by the missionary, and scores of them are 
converted annually, and become worthy members of the Church. 
Here lies the most inviting field of labor. To instruct these chil- 
dren of Ham in the plan of salvation, to pre-oceupy their minds with 
" the truth as it is in Jesus," to see them renounce the superstitions 
of their forefathers, and embrace salvation's plan, would make an 
angel's heart rejoice." 

In referring to the missionary work in the South, and the suc- 
cess attending the labors of the Methodist missionaries, the Rev. 
Dr. Elliott, in his book, " The Great Secession," 1854, says : 

" The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, since their secession, 
has carried on the missionary work among the slaves and colored 
people with"^ great energy and success. At the present time they 
have about 150,000 colored members, or about the same number that 
was in the Methodist Episcopal Church before the secession in 1815. 
There are many missionaries laboring solely among the colored peo- 
ple, with great success, preaching the Gospel, instructing catecheti- 
cally the children, visiting the families pastorally, and benefiting 
their charges effectually. 



214 PULPIT POLITICS. 

• Tlioy pursue and carry out the same modes of instruction em- 
ployed by the Wesleyans in the West Indies, and by the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in her missions. They are doing a great practical 
work. And whatever exceptions we or others may take to some of 
the principles and measures of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, their missionary labors among the slaves of the South have 
no parallel in the world at this day. While they are denounced 
without stint by Northern and some British abolitionists of the re- 
cent school, they are doing more good, practically and Scripturally, 
for the enlightenment, reformation, elevation, and future advantage- 
ous emancipation of the slaves, than all their censurers are 

Another thing we feel bound to mention here. We mean the warm 
and cordial reception and support which our Southern brethren give 
to the leading institutions and usages of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Whatever exceptions we may take to some of their posi- 
tions, they are ardently attached to all the fundamentals and pecu- 
liarities of Methodism, the instance of slavery excepted. They are 
less disposed to innovation than the North is, and hold most tenaci- 
ously to the leading parts of pure and original Methodism." 

Take, also, a short extract from Dr. Bond, as quoted by Dr. 
Elliott, (Great Secession, p. 261). He says : 

" The Southern ministers are not excelled in piety, zeal, talents, 
and usefulness. Men of rare talents have spent years among the 
slaves on the rice plantations, exposed to all the ordinary privations 
of missionary labor, with the additional danger to health and life of 
the deadly malaria from the swamps, acted on by the intense heat of 
a Southern sun." 

These descriptions of the character and ability of the mission- 
aries, among the Southern slaves, are but just tributes to the 
moral worth and eminent usefulness of these brethren. The 
present missionary force, independent of the regular ministry, 
is 136.* The results of their labors show, conclusively, that the 
eulogy passed upon them is nothing more than what is merited 
by them. When Dr. Elliott wrote, the slave converts in the 
Methodist Church South were 150,000; now they are over 200,- 
000 ! A vast work has been accomplished here ! 

* American Chrisliau Record, 1860. 



METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 



215 



Section V. — Interesting Facts in relation to the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church and its Rule on Slavery, 

TliG prominent position occupied by the Methodists, in the 
great work of African Evangelization, awakens an interest in all 
their movements much beyond that of any of the other denomi- 
nations; for, although the Baptists have also done a great work, 
and are not very far behind the Methodists, yet, in conse(i[uence 
of the independent character of their churches, the progress they 
have made can not be so easily traced. Before closing these 
investigations, therefore, some additional particulars, in reference 
to the Methodist Church, must be given. Its legislation on 
slavery will be found, in detail, in Chapter VIII. The churches 
which had been gathered, previous to 1784, were, in that year, 
organized into annual conferences, and the General Conference 
was permanently created in 179G. At this date the entire col- 
ored membership, as given by States, stood as follows: 



Delaware Sll 

Maryland 4,910 

Virginia 2,-158 

North Carolina 1,288 

South Carolina 823 

Georgia I4() 

Tennesisee 43 

Keutuckv 84 



Pennsylvania 380 

New Jersey 105 

New York 218 

Connecticut 8 

Massachusetts 2 

Rhode Island none 

Maine none 

Now Hampshire & Vermont... none 



These figures will serve as a starting point, in estimating the 
progress of the Gospel among the African population of the 
United States ; and they are especially interesting when consid- 
ered in connection wuth the civil legislation of that period. Penn- 
sylvania had adopted a system of gradual emancipation in 1780, 
and was still a slaveholding State in 1796 ; New York remained 
slaveholding until 1799, and New Jersey until 1804 — both 
adopting the same system that Pennsylvania had introduced. 
The six New England States, in 1796, were all free,* and had 
only fen converts, from the colored people, in the communion of 
the Methodist Church ; while the States remaining slaveholding, 



* See foot note in Chapter II. 



216 PULPIT POLIlfcS. 

exclusive of Pennsylvania, had a colored membership in that 
Church of 10,878. 

It "v\-as not until a few years after 1784, that two or three mis- 
sionaries w^ere sent into South Carolina and Georgia, and the very 
name of Methodism had not reached them previous to that date. 
From South Carolina, the first missionary was sent into Missis- 
sippi in 1802, and into Alabama in 1808. As for New England, 
in. 1784, the bright morning of the birth of Methodism in that 
field had not yet dawned. There were no Methodists there.* 
And even in 1796, the white membership in Massachusetts was 
but 822 ; and, in all the New England States, but 2,509.t New 
England, therefore, at the date of the organization of the Gene- 
rel Conference was in no very favorable condition to dictate laws 
to the Church at large, with its 40,000 white members in the slave 
States; nor did she make any attempt of the kind, as she was 
then in her childhood, as to strength, when compared with the 
Churches in the other States. Even as late as 1808, the New 
England States had but 64 colored members in the Methodist 
Church ; while, at the same time, there wej-e 28,612 colored mem- 
bers in the slave States, including the Philadelphia Conference. 
The New England States, in the early days of Methodism, were 
without influence in that body. 

The point to which we wish to call attention, here, is the prev- 
alent opinion, that the history of the legislation of the Methodist 
Church presents a constant concession from the North to the 
South. That this opinion is not founded in fact, is rendered cer- 
tain, because Methodism had made but little progress in the free 
States, until after the whole question in relation to the Rule on 
slavery had been finally settled. The history of this matter may 
be briefly stated : 

In 1780, the existing societies had disapproved the holding of 
slaves and advised their liberation. The organization of the con- 
ferences was effected in 1784, when all private members were 
required to liberate their slaves in the States where the laws al- 
lowed emancipation. But in six months the Rule was suspended. 
In 1796 it came up again, in 1804 again, and in 1808 all that 

*■ Speech of Rev. Dr. Capers, in the case of Bishop Andrews, 1844. 
t See statistics of white members, Chapter II. 



METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 217 

related to holding slaves among private members was stricken out, 
and no Rule on the subject has existed since. -^ 

Kow, all this legislation, in reference to slaveholding, occuri-ed, 
mainly, among the slaveholders themselves — the non-slaveholders 
being a very small minority — and the question was finally ad- 
justed in accordance with the practice of Mr. Wesley himself. 
This is apparent from two leading facts : 1. The case that has 
been mentioned in reference to the introduction of the Gospel into 
Antigua, f In that case, two of the slaves of the planter, Mr. 
Gilbert, who had accompanied him to England, were converted 
under the preaching of Mr. Wesley, and baptized by him. After- 
ward Mr. Gilbert himself was also converted, and on his return to 
Antigua, under the sanction of Mr. Wesley, he became a preacher, 
and proceeded to organize the first Society in that island. Mr. 
Wesley did not exclude Mr. Gilbert from the ministry, although 
he was a slaveholder. 2. But this is not the only instance in 
which Mr. Wesley made no distinction betvi^een the slaveholder 
and the non-slaveholder, in the admission of members to the com- 
munion of the Church. This rule was general throughout the 
West Indies, as appears from the testimony of Bishop Hedding. 
The Bishop, in 1837, presided at the Oneida and Genessee Con- 
ferences, in New York, when some resolutions of an abolition 
stamp were ofi'ered, which he was unwilling to put to vote. In 
his address to them he said : 

"Methodist Societies were formed in the West Indies several years 
before the death of Mr. Wesley. They were under his superintend- 
ence, and, from the best information I have been able to obtain, slave- 
owners were admitted into those Societies ; and, in perfect accordance 
with the above views, that pi-actice was continued up to the time 
slavery was abolished in those islands by the British Government." 

" Let it be further remarked, that for several years before the 
organization of our Church, many of our preachers and people in the 
South owned slaves ; but they were permitted to do it only under our 
Saviour's rule. But who permitted those preachers and members to 
own slaves? You will be astonished when I tell you, it was Mr. 
Wesley. By his permitting it, I mean he did not hinder it when he 

* Speech of Rev. Dr. Duibiu, ou the case of Bishop Andrew, 1844. 
t See Chapter 1. 



218 PULPIT POLITICS. 

had the power to do so. The preachers, in this country, acted under 
his direction : and under that direction the preachers had the sole 
power of receiving and expelling members. Had Mr. Wesley then 
said to his preachers, 'Receive no slave-owner;' or, 'expel the slave- 
owners,' it would have been done, as he commanded. Eut it was not 

done; therefore Mr. Wesley never commanded it Mr. 

Wesley's views on this subject have been misunderstood and misrep- 
resented. For, after all he said against the slave trade, against the 
system of slavery as established by the British Government, and 
against men's holding slaves where the laws were such that they could 
put them away to the advantage of the slaves, he never said one word, 
that I can find, against the Christian man's holding his slave in cir- 
cumstances vrliere he could not put him away without injuring him. 
And the fact of his allowing some of his preachers and members in 
this country to hold slaves for several years before our Church was 
organized, is sufficient evidence, to my mind, that he saw that nothing 
better could be done for the slaves, circumstanced as those owners 
were, than to hold, feed, protect, and govern them. While this state 
of things continued, Mr. Wesley ordained a Bishop and two Elders, 
for this country, sending them over to organize his preachers and 
societies into an Episcopal Church, at the same time appointing Mr. 
Asbury joint superintendent with Dr. Coke, when he must have known 
that many, both of his preachers and members in this country, held 
slaves. Yet I have been severely condemned for expressing an un- 
willingness to put a resolution to vote in an Annual Conference tending 
to censure our brethren in the South for doing the same thing which 
Mr. Wesley allowed their fathers to do when in connection with him, 
and when also he possessed full power to prevent their doing so, or to 
expel them." 

In addition to this testimony, Rev. Dr. Elliott says, in his 
"Great Secession," page 107 : "The Wesleyans had slaveholders 
in their communion, in the West Indies, without rebuke, up to the 
very day on which emancipation took place." 

The true spirit of the Methodist Church, in the early years of 
its existence, was to labor for the propagation of the Gospel, and 
to avoid all conflicts with the civil laws. This is proved to be the 
fact, from the character of the insti-uctions given, by the English 
Wesleyans, to their missionaries in the West Indies. The follow- 
ing is an extract from the instructions adopted in 1817, being 
sixteen years before the emancipation act was passed : 



METHODIST CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 219 

" We caa not omit, witliout neglecting our duty, to warn you against 
meddling with political parties, or secular disputes. You are teacliers 
of religion, and that alone should be kept in view. It is, however, a 
part of your duty, as ministers, to enforce, by precept and example, a 

cheerful obedience to lawful authority As, in the colonies 

in which you are called to labor, a great proportion of the inhabitants 
are in a state of slavery, the Committee most strongly call to your 
recollection what was so fully stated to you, when you were accepted 
as a missionary to the West Indies, that your only business is to pro- 
mote the moral and religious improvement of the slaves to whom you 
may have access, without, in the least degree, in public or private, 
interfering with their civil condition. On all persons, in the state of 
slaves, you are diligently and explicitly to enforce the same exhorta- 
tions which the Apostles of our Lord administered to the slaves of 
ancient nations, when, by their ministry, they embraced Christianity." 

The stringent Rule on slavery, first adopted at the North, seems 
to have been the work of Dr. Coke, one of Mr. Wesley's superin- 
tendents. The character of these regulations can be seen in 
Chapter YIII. It will also be seen, that the regulations were 
modified, as follow^s, in 1804, so as to leave the South in the posi- 
tion it occupied, on the first organization of the Church, in that 
section of the United States: 

"Nevertheless, the members of our societies in the States of North 
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, shall be exempted from the 
operation of the above rules." 

This was passed by the General Conference in 1804. In 1816, 
it was found that much confusion prevailed throughout the Con- 
ferences, as to the manner of executing the rules, and it was 
deemed necessary to embody the whole requirements of the 
Church in a single article, as follows : 

" Therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any official station 
in our Church hereafter, when the laws of the State in which he lives 
will admit of emancipation and permit the liberated slave to enjoy 
freedom." 

But this article, though quieting discussion for a time, did not 
entirely satisfy the ministry in the North. It allowed considerable 



220 PULPIT POLITICS. 

latitude of interpretation. But few of the States positively pro- 
hibited emancipation ; yet none of them allowed the free negro 
the same enjoyment of freedom which the whites possessed. To 
secure this to the emancipated man of color, it was necessary 
that he should be removed to a free state. This measure was not 
required by the Rule ; and, in most of the slave States, therefore, 
the official members could retain their slaves. By the Rule, too, 
the private members of the church were left in the full possession 
of their slaves ; thus placing the terms of communion, as to private 
members, on the same basis that the English "Wesleyans adopted 
for the West Indies, and Bishop Asbury imposed upon South 
Carolina. 

Thus stood the question, as to slaveholding in the Methodist 
Church, when abolitionism arose in the United States. The rise 
and progress of the warfare waged by the anti-slavery ministers, 
against this Rule of 1816, will be found in Chapter VIII., and 
must greatly interest the reader. In 1844, the antagonist parties 
were brought face to face, for a trial of strength, on the case of 
Bishop Andrew — the South contending that the Rule should 
remain unaltered, and the North that it should be abolitionized. 
Technically, this was not the ground upon which the prosecution 
was based, but, substantially, it embraced this principle. * The 
North, here, was the aggressor : the South, being satisfied with 
the position she had so long occupied, and which was fully in 
accordance with the practice of Mr. Wesley. The disruption of 
the Church left some of the border Conferences in connection with 
the North, and this has tended to renew the efforts to alter the 
Rule — a measure that would have been easily accomplished after 
the division of the Church, but for the membership in the border 
slave States. 

The relation which the iMcthodist Church sustained toward the ■ 
cause of African evangelization, at the moment of the trial of 
Bishop Andrew, is a matter of the greatest possible interest. 
The ministers in both the North and the South, doubtless, were 
equally zealous in their desires to promote the spiritual welfare 
of the colored people. But the measures of the two parties were 

* See Chapter VIII, 



METHODIST CnURCH AND SLAVERY. 



221 



as opposite in principle as clay is to night. One or the other 
must have been laboring under a spirit of fanaticism. We have 
seen that the ministers in the North were almost wholly unsuccess- 
ful Avith the colored people. Let us see how it had been with 
those of the South : 

MemhersMp, in the 3Ieihodist episcopal Cfiurch, of coloi'ed persons, 
at the several dates given helow. 



CONFEREXCES 

Philadelphia* 

Baltimore , 

Virginia 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Arkansas 

Texas 

Tennessee! 

Kentucky 

Missouri 

Total 



1826 


1830 


1834 


1838 


1842 


1845 


7,650 


8,169 


9,025 


8,112 


9,086 


10,742 


9,406 


10,454 


13,851 


13,301 


13,526 


16,412 


7,847 


9,967 


8,083 


2,950 


3,558 


4,494 








3,896 


4,733 


6,390 


15,708 


24,538 


22,788 


23,498 


30,840 


39,495 






7,421 


7,126 


11,457 


13,994 






3,163 


2,830 


7,505 


13,537 


2,494 


4,247 


2,622 


1,587 


4,089 


7,799 








592 


828 
407 


1,775 
1,005 


3,597 


5,430 


7,167 


6,727 


9,355 


15,703 


2,821 


4,884 


5,709 


4,770 


0,761 


9,302 


339 


414 


996 


812 


1,399 


2,530 


49,862 


68,103 


80,825 


76,201 


103,544 


143,238 



It will be noticed, that the colored membership of the Methodist 
Church, in Virginia, was reduced more than 7,000, between 1830 
and 1838. This reduction, doubtless, w^as caused by the "Nat. 
Turner insurrection," and supplies a fair example of the effects 
of such movements upon the religious interests of the colored 
people. The masters, having full confidence in the missionaries, 
allow them free access to the slaves ; but, losing confidence in the 
honesty of their purposes, the slaves are forbidden to hear them ; 
and the results are disastrous to the progress of religion. It was 
in view of this fact, that Rev. Dr. Capers, in his speech on the 



* Reference has frequently been made to the Philadelphia Conference, as in- 
cluding portions of the territory of Maryland and Delaware. The Report for 
1857, gives a colored membership in this Conference, of 8,304, and probationers 
848. Of this number there are only 138 members in the North Philadelphia 
District, 80 in the South Philadelphia District, and 19 in the Reading District, 
being in all only 289; and of probationers in the whole of these Districts there 
were but 39 — the remainder being in the slave States. 

tThe three Conferences of Tennessee are added together. 



222 PULPIT POLITICS. 

case of Bishop Andrew, made such a powerful appeal to the 
Northern members of Conference, to desist from pressing their 
anti-slavery measures upon the attention of that body. Already 
the missionaries could show, as seals of their ministry, nearly 
150,000 converts among the slaves. It was all-important that 
this great work should progress without interruption. This it 
could not do, excepting the anti-slavery crusade against slave- 
holders should be checked in its progress. In attempting to effect 
this object, Dr. Capers said : 

" I beseech brethren to allow due weight to the considerations 
which have been so kindly and ably urged by others on this branch 
of the subject. I contemplate it, I confess, with a bleeding heart. 
Never, never have I suffered as in view of the evil which this measure 
threatens against the South. The agitation has already begun there ; 
and I tell you that though our hearts were to be torn out of our 
bodies, it could avail nothing, when once you have awakened the feel- 
ing that we can not be trusted among the slaves. Once you have 
done this thing, you have effectually destroyed us. I could wish to 
die sooner than to live to see such a day. As sure as you live, breth- 
ren, there are tens of thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, whose 
destiny may be periled by your decision on this case. When we tell you 
that we preach to a hundred thousand slaves in our missionary field, 
we only announce the beginning of our work — the beginning of the 
openings of the door of access to the most numerous masses of slaves 
in the South. When we add, that there are two hundred thousand 
now within our reach who have no Gospel imles? we give it to them, 
it is still but the same announcement of the beginnings of the open- 
ing of that wide and effectual door, which was so long closed, and so 
lately has begun to be opened, for the preaching of the Gospel, by our 
ministry, to a numerous and destitute portion of the people. 0, close 
not this door ! Shut us not out from this great work, to which we 
have been so signally called of God. Consider our position. I pray 
you, I beseech you by every sacred consideration, pause in this mat- 
ter. Do not talk about concessions to the South. We ask for no 
concessions — no compromises. Do with us as you please, but spare 
the souls for whom Jesus died. If you deem our toils too light, and 
that after all there is more of rhetoric than cross-bearing in our 
labors, come down and take a part with us. Let this be the compro- 
mise, if we have any. I could almost promise my vote to make the 
elder a bishop who should give such a proof as this of his devotion 



METHODIST CIIUKCH AND SLAVERY. 223 

to, — I will not say the emancipation of the negro race, but what is 
better — what is move constitutional and more Christian, — the sal- 
vation of the souls of the negroes on our great Southern plantations. 
Concessions ! Wo ask for none. So far from it, we are ready to 
make any in our power to you. We come to you not for ourselves, 
but for perishing souls; and we entreat you, for Christ's sake, not to 
take away from them the bread of life which we arc just now begin- 
ning to carry them. We beg for this — I must repeat it — with 
bleeding hearts. Yes, I feel intensely on this subject. The stone of 
stumbling and rock of oflFence of former times, when George Daugh- 
erty, a Southern man, and a Southern minister, and one of the wisest 
and best that ever graced our ministry, was dragged to the pump in 
Charleston, and his life rescued by a sword in a woman's hand, — the 
offence of the anti-slavery measures of that day has but lately begun 
to subside. I can not, I say, forget past times, and the evil of them, 
when in those parts of my own State of South Carolina, where slaves 
are most numerous, there was little more charity for Methodist 
preachers than if they had been Mormons, and their access to the 
negroes was looked upon as dangerous to the public peace. Bring- 
not back upon us the evil of those bitter days 

" I said, sir, that we ask for no concessions. We ask nothing for our- 
selves. We fear nothing for ourselves. But we ask, and we demand, 
that you embarrass not the Gospel by the measure now proposed. 
Throw us back, if you will, to those evil times. But we demand that 
when you shall have caused us to be esteemed a sort of land pirates, 
and we have to preach again at such places as Riddlespurger's and 
Rantoule swamp, you see to it that we find there the souls who are 
now confided to our care as pastors of the flock of Christ. Yes, throw 
us back again to those evil times ; but see that you make them evil 
to none but ourselves. Throw us back, but make it possible for us to 
fulfill our calling; and by the grace of God we will endure and over- 
come, and still ask no concessions of you. But if you can not do 
this; if you can not vex us without scattering the sheep, and making 
them a prey to the wolf of hell, then do we sternly forbid the deed. 
You may not, and you dare not do it. I say again, if by this meas- 
ure the evil to be done were only to involve the ministry, vathout 
harm or peril to the souls we serve, we might bow to the stroke with- 
out despair, if not in submissive silence. We know the work as a 
cross-bearing service; and as such we love to accomplish it. It 
pleased God to take the life of the first missionary sent to tlie ne- 
groes, but his successor was instantly at hand. And in the name of 



224 PULPIT POLITICS. 

tlie men who are now in the work, or ready to enter it, I pledge for a 
brave and uufliucliing perseverance. This is not braggardism. No, 
it is an honest expression of a most honest feeling. Life or death, 
we will never desert that Christian work to which we know that God 
has called us. We ask to be spared no trial; but that the way of 
trials may be kept open for us. We ask to be spared no labor ; but 
that we may be permitted to labor on, and still more abundantly. 
Add, if you please, to the amount of our toils. Pile labor on labor 
more and more. Demand of us still more brick ; or even the full tale 
of brick without straw or stubble ; but cut us not off from the clay 
also. Cut us not off from access to the slaves of the south, when (to 
say nothing of " concessions to the South ") you shall have finished 
the measure of your demands for the North." 

These appeals were all in vain, and the only means by which 
the Southern ministers could maintain themselves in the South, 
and continue their labors among the blacks, was to withdraw 
from the Northern conferences, and organise the Southern con- 
ferences on the principles originally adopted by Bishop Asbury, 
of dropping the Rule on slavery. 

Section VI. — Interesting Facts connected with the Con- 
gregational AND Baptist Churches, of the United States, 
IN their relations to Slavery. 

Thus far, no reference has been made to the Congregational 
Churches of the United States, in the relation they sustain to 
slavery. Their church polity does not bring such questions be- 
fore their conferences, in a formal manner, with the view of de- 
ciding any principle relating to terms of Christian fellowship. 
All such questions are decided by the congregations separately. 
Upon the great question of slavery, we are informed that they 
are very harmonious in their sentiments, not only in New Eng- 
land, but throughout the country. At their General Conference, 
some eight or ten years since, a deliverance on the subject of 
slavery was given^-'lTwas decidedly anti-slavery in its tone, and 
may be reckoned as maintaining the abolition ground. The 
"three thousand and fifty clergymen of New England," who 
addressed Congress, in 1854, in a protest against the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill, included a large number of Congregational min- 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 2'2o 

isters. Their views may be inferred from the tone of that docu- 
ment, which the reader will find in a subsequent Chapter, 
together with the debates in Congress, to which it gave rise. 
The memorial on the same subject, from the clergymen of Chi- 
cago and the North West, and the reply of Mr. Douglass to the 
same, will also be found in that chapter, A large portion of its 
signers, likewise, were Congregationalists. 

A notice of this denomination is quite in place in this connec- 
tion. They were the first to occupy New England, and, for many 
years, had little or no rivalry from other denominations. They 
have had many men of great intelligence and piety in their min- 
istry, and Avould seem to have had but few obstacles, indeed, to 
their success in the propagation of the Gospel. In reference to 
slavery, they, in general, held the British theory — that it was 
incompatible with the progress of the Gospel. In Massachusetts, 
especially, Congregationalism has had a fair field, and should 
have made rapid progress, according to their abolition theory, as 
compared with the advancement of the Gospel in the slave States. 
And how do the results compare ? 

During September, 18G1, the General Conference of the 
Congregational Churches of Massachusetts held its session 
at Newburyport. 

" At the meeting last year, in Springfield, the following resolution 
was passed : * 

" Resolved, That in view of the spiritual desolations, which are 
known to exist in this Commonwealth, and the fact that so large a 
portion of our population are not reached at present by the ordinary 
means of grace, a committee of five be appointed by this Conference 
to consider and report next year what can be done to reach more 
efi'ectually these masses, and more thoroughly evangelize every por- 
tion of our Commonwealth. 

" The committee appointed in pursuance of this resolution, pre- 
sented at the late meeting of the Conference a carefully-prepared Re- 
port, intended to answer briefly the question, " What can be done " 
by the Congregationalists as a denomination in this matter. Inas- 
much as this was the first time that such a question was ever pro- 

* We copy from the New York Observer's report of the proceedings. 

15 



226 PULPIT POLITICS. 

pounded to tlie representatives of these cliurclies in council, and, as 
it was expected that ' Home Evangelization ' would constitute here- 
after a prominent object of this General Conference, the Committee 
were led to inquire into the adaptation of the Congregational polity 
and the agencies in its employ for this work. And in order to pre- 
sent a full view of the subject, an historical sketch of Congregation- 
alism in Massachusetts was given, together with a notice of the rise 
and progress of the other Evangelical denominations. It was found, 
on instituting a comparison, that all these denominations had gained 
very much upon the Congregationalists. From the landing of the 
Pilgrims to 1790, the latter had almost the entire possession of the 
ground. At that period there were no Methodists, only one or two 
Episcopal, and a small number of Baptist churches in the State. 
From the year 1800 all these denominations increased rapidly, but no 
accurate statistics were collected till 1820, or afterwards, so that a 
comparison of relative growth can be made. The Committee ob- 
tained, after much research, the exact number of ministers, churches, 
and communicants belonging to the Evangelical denominations in 
Massachusetts at each decade of years, from 1820 to 1860; and, 
taking the church membership as the most correct standard of com- 
parison, it was found that from 1830 to 1860, the gain of the Congre- 
gationalists had been 101 per cent. ; that of the Baptists, 129 per 
cent. ; that of the Methodists, 199 per cent. ; and that of the Epis- 
copalians, 408 per cent. And that from 1850 to 1860, the gain of the 
Congregationalists had been much less than any previous decade of 
years. In fact, the additions to the Congregational churches in Mas- 
sachusetts, for the last ten years, have scarcely made good the loss by 
deaths and removals from the State. Whereas, the Episcopalian, the 
Methodist, and the Baptist churches have, in the same time, received 
large additions. The exact number of churches and members of these 
denominations in 1860 was as follows : The Congregationalists had 
488 churches, with 76,371 members ; the Methodists, 260 churches, 
with 27,788 members ; the Baptists, 268 churches, and 36,250 mem- 
bers ; the Episcopalians, 73 churches, and 7,744 members. Accord- 
ing to tliese facts and figures, it seems that the Congregational de- 
nomination has not, for some causes, relatively increased equal to the 
others here mentioned. These causes this Committee endeavored 
carefully to analyze, showing what agencies and influences have been 
operating in past years to build up certain denominations more rap- 
idly than our own. While some of these agencies lie beyond the 
range of any religious body, the most efficient are directly under the 



BAPTIST CHURCHi:S AND SLAVERY. 227 

control of every denomination. In comparing and analyzing these 
agencies of churcli action and aggression, the object of the Commit- 
tee was to inquire toherein the Congregationalists have failed or erred 
in the use of such means as both propriety and duty might naturally 
impose upon any religious organization." 

It is not necessary to copy the apologies offered by the Com- 
mittee, for the want of success in the Congregational churches. 
That the New England ministry have failed, as well as that of all 
the other denominations, in coming up to the perfect standard of the 
Gospel minister, according to the example of Paul, is lamentably 
apparent, from the results attending their labors. Contrast their 
preaching on the question of slavery, with the preaching of the 
Apostle Paul, as described by himself: "For I determined not 
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
fied."* The burden of Paul's preaching, both to the Jews and 
also to the Greeks, he assures us, " was repentance toward God, 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." f Felix never would 
have trembled before Paul, except with rage, had the Apostle 
employed his eloquence in depicting the horrors of slavery 
throughout the Roman Empire, and the duty of granting equal 
rights to all mankind. 

It will be seen that the membership of the Congregational 
churches, in Massachusetts, with all the advantages of an early 
monopoly of the ground, is now only 76,371, while the member- 
ship among the colored people, in the slave States, is 465,000 ! 
Had the Gospel been faithfully preached in Massachusetts, would 
the Head of the Church have left its ministers with so few seals 
to their ministry? 

The Baptist Church, in the United States, is also Congrega- 
tional in its Church polity. It divided, several years since, on 
the slavery question. The division grew out of the disagree- 
ments in relation to the mode of conducting their foreign mis- 
sionary operations ; and they have now two Boards — one North 
and the other South. In Section VIL, the results of the efforts 
of these two Boards are given — the one laboring among free- 
men, in heathendom, and the other among slaves in the Southern 

* 1 Corinthians ii : 2. t Acts xx : 21. 



228 PULPIT POLITICS. 

slave States, That Section embraces the whole of the results of 
all the mission-work of the American churches, throughout the 
world. 

The condition of the Baptist Church North, as to numbers, at 
present, as compared with its condition before separating from 
the South, we have no means of determining ; but one of the 
organs of the Church,* in referring to the spiritual condition of 
tiie congregations, at large, reviews the Associational year as 
follows : 

" It has been a year of general spiritual dearth. The Presidential 
election, with the great issues involved, absorbed the attention of all 
good citizens in the last autumn, and activity in the ordinary religious 
channels was lessened. The exciting events which have followed, 
culminating in a disastrous civil war, have not been favorable to calm 
meditation, or deep religious feeling. The newspaper has been read 
more than the Bible, the armory has exerted a stronger magnet- 
ism than the conference-room ; and even on the Sabbath, solicitude 
for the country has usurped time consecrated to the Lord. Minis- 
ters have found it a hard year to preach, from the double difficulty 
of arresting the attention of the people, and keeping themselves zeal- 
ously at work in the study. Superintendents have fouud a truant 
disposition gaining ground among scholars and teachers. Faithful 
attendants at social meetings have had occasion to regret that the 
zeal of some of their weaker brethren has grown cold. 

" We anticipate, therefore, barren reports from the churches. Few 
baptisms will be reported, and little spiritual life. The letters will 
glow with patriotism, but will say little of growth in godliness." 

The Witness, the Baptist paper of Indiana, has a similar sad tale 
to relate. It says, in a notice of a recent Association in that State : 

" The letters from the churches indicated great barrenness of spir- 
itual life and power, and hence a decline of numbers. There seem 
few, if any, marks of progress in any of our Associations, except down- 
ward, and there certainly seems very little effort to turn the current. 
The brethren seem unwilling to allow themselves time to even make 
reckoning with themselves. Very few seem to be ' weeping between 
the porch and the altar;' very few are ready to cry, 'Watchman, 
what of the night ? ' and very few watchmen offer any response. To 
our mind the rapid decline of our churches is inevitable. There ap- 

* Watchman and Reflector, Boston, September, 1861. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 229 

pear to be no great objects brought before tbem, and pressed upon their 
hearts. There seem to be no laymen or ministers, impressed enough 
with the barren state of things to bring forward any great issue." 

These remarks are copied, to call attention to the closing sen- 
tences of the last article. There is no one " to bring forward any 
great issue ; " and, alas ! the progress of the Church is down- 
wards. Here is the true secret, we fear, of the spiritual declen- 
sion of the churches. During the last half century, the ministry 
have brought forward several " great issues " before the people. 
Among these issues, slavery has been preeminent ; but it can no 
longer serve as a rallying cry, to rouse up the zeal of lax profes- 
sors. Some new issue, therefore, is demanded. And has it come 
to this, that, in a world of fallen men, who are resting under the 
wrath and curse of an oifended Deity, the very ministry appointed 
to reconcile them to God through the Gospel of his Son, have to 
lament that they can find no "great issue," of suificient interest 
to attract their perishing fellow-men to the Saviour ! Surely, the 
editor was not conscious of the import of his language. He could 
not have intended to convey the idea, that the love of Jesus has 
no longer any attractions. No issue ! when men are sinking to 
perdition ! Why, man, there is no theme, no issue, like that of 
perdition on the one hand, and salvation on the other. Drop, 
then, all your old stale issues ; seek no new-fangled ones, the 
novelty of which will attract men to your standard; but, like 
Paul, resolve to preach Christ and him crucified; but above all 
things, never again paralyze the piety of the Church by political 
preaching. 

In immediate connection with these remarks, a quotation from 
the pen of the former editor of the Christian Intelligencer, written 
in 1861, will be appropriate, it will be seen that the editor of 
1829 has changed his views, in a considerable degree, in 1861. 
With age comes wisdom. He thus announces his present views : 

" There may be too much of a good thing. It may well be doubted, 
whether, just at this time, many ministers of the Gospel are not in 
danger of keeping the subject of slavery too much before their own 
minds, and the minds of their hearers, as the source, and the only 
source, of our national troubles. A minister may preach long and 



230 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



loud against slavery, or any other sin, and yet not bring one soul to 
Christ. In the present crisis, when the question is soon to be tested, 
whether, as a people, we have enough of that 'virtue and intelligence' 
which is the basis of free government, to save us from bringing ruin 
on ourselves, a minister will serve his country best by teaching his 
hearers to 'fear God, and keep his commandments.'"* 

Section VII. — Results of the Foreign Missionary work of 
THE American Churches, as compared with the results of 
their Domestic Missions among the Slaves of the United 
St-ates. 

1. The Methodist Episcopal Church. — This religious denom- 
ination had become deeply enlisted in the work of foreign mis- 
sions before its division into two bodies. The Church North is 
still prosecuting the foreign work with great zeal. The Forty- 
second Aanual Report of its Missionary Society, 1861, presents 
the following tabular statement of its foreign missions. We add 
to it, from the domestic missions, the statistics of its Indian mis- 
sion — the whole presenting the following results : 



MISSIONS. 


MISSIONARIES. 


ASSISTANTS. 


NATIVE 

MEMBERS. 


AMERICAN 
MEMBERS. 


Africa 


27 

5 

10 

15 
6 

1 
21 


25 
13 

22 
4 

17 

13 
1 

19 


72 

54 
67 

1,637 
663 

1,171 


1,481 
8 

76 

79 


China 


India 


Bul"'aria 


Germany 


Scandinavia 


South America 


Indian Missions 


Total 


83 


124 


3,664 


1,644 











The American members in the African mission, are the colon- 
ists from the United States. The same class of members in the 
China, India, and South American missions, are white residents 
in those countries. The missions in Germany and Scandinavia, 
being in Christian countries, are not to be classed with heathen 
missions. The expenditures, in 1860, for the China mission, ^yere 
$25,567; the foreign German mission, $25,664; the India mis- 

* Christian Instructor and Western United Presbyterian. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS OF AMERICAN CnURCUES AND SLAVERY. 231 

sion, $30,642; the Liberia mission, §20,937; the Norway and 
Sweden mission, $6,093 ; the Bulgarian mission, $2,682 ; and the 
Buenos Ayres mission, $1-16. Total, $111,731. 

The first introduction of Methodism into Liberia, occurred 
in connection with the colonists, about forty years since; but 
the mission was not formally organized until 1832. Something 
more than a half million of dollars has been expended on this 
mission. From causes assigned by Bishop Scott, and quoted else- 
where, the success of the missionaries among the natives has not 
been very encouraging — there being at present only seventy-two 
converts. Deducting the German and Scandinavian converts from 
the number of the native converts, and adding thereto the Ameri- 
can colonists in Liberia, and the whole number of church mem- 
bers which should be estimated in this connection is 2,845. 

The Methodist Church South, including the members in the 
border Conferences, can offset this by showing a colored member- 
ship of over 215,000 ! 

2. The American Baptist Missionary Union is the agency 
of the Baptist Churches North, for conducting their missionary 
operations in the foreign field. The missions of this Board, ac- 
cording to the Annual Report for 1861, stand as follows : 













1 1 1 o to 
















<t y in 




a 








o 






















E-i 








WHERE LOCATED. 


!z; 


a 


< 


2 








M aj- 




% 


H 


^ 


i 




> K S 




S 3! 






























b< 






^ 




14 


17 


311 


u 


37 


387 


288 


16,174 


N. American Indians... 




7 


9 


5 


7 




1.5 


1,600 




2 


71 


861 






141 


79 


9,239 


Total 


18 


95 


1,181 


41 




633 


382 


27,013 













The Baptist missionaries, sent to Asia, were the first who left 
the United States for a heathen country. They set sail in 1812. 
Nearly fifty years have elapsed since that date, and their missions 
in Asia now number 16,174 converts. Those among the North 
American Indians, commenced at a later day, have 1,600 ; making 
a total membership, in the Baptist mission churches, in their 
heathen fields, of 17,774. 



232 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The Southern Baptist Board of Missions, have their fields 
of kxbor in Africa, and in the Southern States. In the latter field 
alone, the number of converts, in 1859, was 175,000 ! This, how- 
ever, includes the whole membership in all the Baptist congrega- 
tions, missionary as well as anti-missionary. In Africa, they 
have had no better success than other churches. 

The missions of the Baptist Churches North, were established 
among a people called free. Those in Asia had to encounter the 
difiiculties attending the mission work among an idolatrous popu- 
lation, speaking a foreign language; while those among the Indi- 
ans were not more favorably situated. The Northern Board, in 
conducting its missions, had the advantage of being supported by 
a more numerous people, who could greatly exceed the South in 
the amount of their contributions. It had the further advantage, 
also, of having the aid of the South for many years, or until the 
Northern and Southern churches divided oVi the question of 
slavery. Its heathen missions, alone, are noticed in this contrast, 
those in Europe being among a civilized people. 

The Southern Board had to send its missionaries among a slave 
population, Avhere the world at large averred the Gospel could 
make no progress. But in this belief the world was mistaken. 
The colored people, under slavery, had never formed any attach- 
ments to the religion of their fathers ; and they had acquired the 
use of the English language. This was a progress vastly beyond 
the condition of the population of Asia; and the results show a 
corresponding success — the converts in the missions of the North- 
ern Board being 17,774, and of the Southern Board, 175,000 ! 

There is a point of great interest here, and at the risk of some 
repetition of what is elsewhere said, we call attention to it in this 
connection. The slow progress of the mission-work in the foreign 
fields, so far as natural causes operate, are the results of the 
deeply-seated systems of idolatry which prevail, and the social 
practices that are their natural out-growth : all of which are 
wholly antagonistic to the pure principles of the Gospel. These 
have to be uprooted before Christianity can succeed. The Ameri- 
can slaves born among a people acknowledging Christianity, are 
unaflfected by false idolatrous systems of religion, and are, there- 
fore, more accessible to Christian instruction. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS OF AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 233 

3. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. — This 
Board is the agency appointed by the General Assembly Presby- 
terians, 0. S., for conducting their missions in the foreign field. 
Its Report for 1861, gives the extent of its missions, with the 
results as follows : 









m 




i 


a 


n 




a 


where located. 


§ 


^; 








li 


P 6 


a 


s 








cj 


« 


t S 


d^ 






« § 










H 






































-<! 






•< 


^ 


M 


u 


Indian Tribes 


7 


13 




15 


3 


62 


8 


708 


2,179 


Africa 


3 


9 




12 




12 


6 


242 


250 


India 


2 


17 




%\ 


?, 


23 


48 


3,475 


259 


Siam 


1 


1 




fi 




5 


1 


31 


8 


China • 


4 


5 




13 




18 


17 


188 


161 


Japan 


1 


1 




1 




3 








South America 


1 


2 




4 




^ 




20 




Total* 


19 


48 




74 


6 


126 


80 


4,664 


2,857 





These missions are efficiently sustained by the contributions 
from the congregations of this denomination. No Christian peo- 
ple in the world more regularly, zealously, and conscientiously 
sustain their religious enterprises. In this respect the Old School 
Presbyterians are educated up to a commendable degree of liber- 
ality, it being no longer necessary to employ agents for the col- 
lection of funds. 

The success of the missions of this Church abroad, has not been 
equal to the success of its less systematic eiforts at home. The 
foreign field, in 1861, gives but 2,857 converts among the heathen; 
while the home field, in 1859, gave 12,000 converts among the 
slaves. 

4. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
sions. — This Board derives its support, mainly, from the Con- 
gregationalists and New School General Assembly Presbyterians. 
It has been in existence fifty years, and has just issued a Memorial 
Volume, for 1860, in celebration of its Jubilee Meeting. The 
total expenditure of the Board, from its organization to the date 



* The mission to the Jews in New York, of one minister, and that to Papal 
Europe, are omitted, as not being Pagan, and as not reporting any members. 



234 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



of the issuing of this volume, or in the first fifty years of its 
operations, has been $8,633,381. The expenditure for 1860 was 
$361,958; and, for the four years preceding, an average of 
$217,680 per annum. This Missionary Association is probably 
the best supported and most eflBcient Board in the country, and 
may be considered the model institution of its class. 

The following tabular view of the missions of the Board, in- 
cluding the number of churches established, the number of con- 
verts received in the congregations during the year, the present 
number of the members in the several churches, and the number 
of converts from the beginning, will afford a true idea of the 
success attending: the efforts of the Association : 



MISSIONS. 


CHUKCUES. 


RECEIVED THE 
LAST YEAK. 


PRESENT 
NUMBER. 


NUMBER FROM 
THE BEGINNINQ. 


Gaboon Mission 


1 

7 

40 

3 

1 

1.3 
2 
5 

28 
9 
3 
5 

23 

i 

2 
3 


6 

226 
19 

51 
69 
11 

78 
46 
13 

573 

132 
5 

27 


15 

186 

1,277 

119 

3.S.3 

o'.)ti 

74 

126 

1,012 

457 

28 

126 

14,413 

4 

248 

1,362 

91 

283 


38 

1,450 
157 

401 

466 

1,278 

35 

130 

43,758 

4 


Zulu Mission 


Armenians 


Syria Mission 


Mosul 

Nestorian Mission 

Mahratta Mission 

Madras Mission 


Arcot Mission, (1857)... 
Madura Mission . . 


Ceylon Mission 


Three China Missions. 
Amoy Mission, (1857).. 

Sandwich Islands 

Micronesia Mission 

Cherokee (1859) 


Choctaws (1859) 


Dakotas & Ojibwas 

Senecas & Tuscaroras.. 

Total 






20,621 





The number of ordained missionaries and assistant missionaries 
sent forth from the beginning has been 1,258 — ordained mis- 
sionaries 415, physicians not ordained 24, assistants 819 ; males 
567, females 691. 

5. The Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in North America held its twenty-fourth annual and 
eighth triennial meeting in Richmond, Virginia, October, 1859. 
The Report, in relation to the foreign fields, exhibits an expendi- 
ture of money, in the several missions, which indicates a great 



FOKEIGN MISSIONS OF AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 235 

degree of liberality, on the part of the people of this church, in 
the support of Gospel ordinances in the heathen world. The sev- 
eral amounts stood thus : The mission in Greece, $3,300 ; China, 
$19,902 ; xifrica, $41,321 ; South America, $100; Japan, $1,832. 
Total, $66,455 — fractions omitted. 

" Very marked changes are going on in large portions of the con- 
tinent of Africa. Exploration has done much to bring to light that 
which was before unknown, and to exhibit features in the condition 
of the country and its inhabitants, encouraging more intimate rela- 
tions with those engaged in business and commercial pursuits, and 
inviting to largely-increased benevolent and missionary operations."* 

'In relation to the African mission under the charge of Bishop 
Payne, this devoted missionary writes, in October, 1861, that the 
mission stands thus : communicants, foreign and colonist, 211 ; 
native, 158 : totarl, 369. Boarding scholars, colonist, 37 ; native, 
103: total, 140. J)ay scholars, colonist, 133; native, 250: total, 
383. Sunday-school scholars, colonist, 334 ; native, 150 : total, 
484. t 

The China mission is comparatively of recent origin, but pre- 
sents encouraging aspects. It consists of a bishop, 3 presbyters, 
6 deacons, 2 native deacons, 3 candidates for orders, (2 foreign, 
1 native,) 12 female missionaries: total, 27. Baptisms, 12; com- 
municants, about 70. As there have been but 12 baptisms, it is 
inferred that the greater number of these communicants are for- 
eigners, residing in China. 

The Board, in reference to Japan, take pleasure in announcing 
that, in point of time, their mission was the first one actually es- 
tablished in that empire. 

The mission in South America is also in its infancy. 

The statistics of the Greek mission are not given in the work 
from which we quote the foregoing particulars. J From the small 
amount appropriated for its support, it is inferred that it is an in- 
fant mission. 

6. The American Christian Recoi'd, for 1860, has the following 

* American Christian Record, 1860. 

t Report of Bishop Payne, African Repository. 

X American Christian Record, 1860. 



236 PULPIT POLITICS. 

notice of the American Missionary Association. It refers* tc 
the report of 1859 : 

" The missionaries have been instructed to labor for the overthrow 
of slavery, as of any other sin, and they do not receive slaveholders 
into the church, nor invite them to communion. 

" The number of foreign missions was 8 ; stations and out-stationa 
29; and 9 out-preaching places. Number of laborers in the foreign 
field, including those about to sail, 69. . . . The Jamaica mission had 
7 stations, 3 out-stations, and 24 missionary laborers, including 4 native 
assistants. The reports exhibit a less favorable condition than in 
former years. . . . The Ojibue mission being unpromising, the com- 
mittee recommended its relinquishment. The Ojibue and Ottowa 
mission had had 7 additions to the church membership in the preced- 
ing eight months Sixty had been added to the church at the 

Sandwich Islands. Several Sunday-schools and two chui'ches had 
been formed among the colored population of the Canada mission, 
Mr. Hotchkiss had added 18 to the churches under his care, in a little 
more than a year. The Siam mission was at length beginning to pre- 
sent cheering indications The Coptic mission had made no 

progress during the year,, in consequence of the illness of Mr. Mar- 
tin, who had asked and obtained permission to retire." 

Of the African mission little more is said, in the work from which 
we quote, than what has been already stated. No statistics of 
membership are given, so that we are left without satisfactory 
data from which to judge of the progress of the foreign mission- 
ary work of this Board. It must be remarked, however, that 
with the exception of the West India, the African, and the Can- 
ada mission, the fields entered upon have not been long occupied. 
The membership in the West Indies is elsewhere stated at 400, 
and that of Africa at 300. Total, 700. 

7. The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church has three for- 
eign missions under its care — the Amoy, the Arcot, and the 
Japanese. The Amoy mission was founded in 1842, and, in 
1859, was composed of 5 missionaries, and 3 assistant female 
missionaries, with 8 native helpers, making 16 in all. There 
were, in 1859, under the care of the mission, 185 communicants, 3 
parochial schools, and 4 theological students under its patronage. 

The Arcot mission has 5 churches, with an aggregate of 146 



FOREIGN MISSIONS OF AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 237 

members, 29 of ^yhom were received during the year. The mis- 
sion is composed of 7 missionaries, 5 of whom belong to the 
Scudder family, so eminent for their devotion to the cause of 
their Divine Master ; and 6 female assistant missionaries and 1 
male assistant — in all 14. Total communicants in these two 
missions, 331. 

The Japanese mission is composed of 3 missionaries and 4 as- 
sistant missionaries. This mission is of recent origin. 

The Moravians of the United States act in concert with their 
brethren throughout Europe. Their missions are, therefore, 
omitted in this statement of the operations of the American 
churches, but are included in another section, referring to the 
missions of Protestant Christendom. 

We are now prepared to contrast the missions of the American 
churches among the heathen, with those which have been con- 
ducted among the slaves of the United States. They stand aa 
follows : 



DENOMINATIONS. 


HEATHEN MIS- 
SIONS. 


DENOMINATIONS. 


MISSIONS IN 
SLAVE STATES. 


Methodists, (North) 

Baptists, (North) 


2,845 
17,774 

2,857 

2U,621 

439 

700 

331 

300 


Methodists, (South) » 


215,000 

175,000 

12,000 

6,000 

7,000 
10,000 

20,000 
20,000 


Presbyterians, (0. S.) 

American Board 


Presoyterians, (0. S.) 

Presbyterians, (N. S.) 

Protestant Episcopal Ch., 
(estimated.) , . 


Protestant Episcopal Ch.. 
American Missionary As- 




Reformed Protestant 
Dutch Church 


Cumberland Presbyteri- 


Mr. King's, and others, 
Canada.. 


Other Denominations 

Total 


Total 


45,867 


465,000 









If we deduct from the converts in the missions of the Ameri- 
can -Board, the church members in the Sandwich Islands, the 
remainder, belonging to all the other missions of the Board, will 
be 6,208, or only about the same number that the New School 
Presbyterians lost to their Assembly, among the blacks of the 
South, by the agitation of the subject of slavery. 



* This includes all the colored membership in the border Conferences of tho 
Church North, within the slave States, along with those in the Church South. 



238 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Comments upon the above figures are not required, to convince 
the intelligent reader that American Slavery presents no such 
obstacles to the progress of the Gospel as are found in the pagan 
world. 

Section yill. — General results of the Missionary Efforts 
AMONG the African Race, in Freedom and in Slavery, placed 

IN CONTRAST. 

We are now prepared to look at results, in another direction, 
and to contrast the success of the Gospel among the slaves of the 
United States, with the progress it has made in all the other por- 
tions of the world, where the missionary has extended his aid to 
the African race. 

The work of missions, for the benefit of the negro race, may 
be considered as having been fairly commenced, only a short time 
before the beginning of the present century. The Moravian mis- 
sions had their origin at an earlier day ; but those of the other 
denominations, in South Africa, the West Indies, and the United 
States, had then been in operation only a little more than a dozen 
years. The missions in West Africa are of a different type from 
all the others, as slavery has not prevailed in either Sierra Leone 
or Liberia. The British emancipation act gave freedom to both 
South Africa and the West Indies. The South African missions 
have had their own peculiar obstacles to overcome, and many of 
them are yet in a very embarrassing position. The contrast for 
the West Indies has already been drawn, between the periods of 
slavery and freedom ; and the facts show that, with the advantages 
of all the previous missionary labor in the islands, upon which to 
found their free churches, and with double the number of societies 
actively at work, the colored membership, in these islands, is now 
but little advanced beyond what it was before emancipation ; and 
the general testimony, contained in the missionary reports, is, 
that the membership does not increase. 

This result is very different, indeed, from what was expected by 
British Christians, while laboring for West India emancipation, 
and supplies a striking example of the lack of foresight govern- 
ing their actions. 



MISSIONS UNDER FREEDOM AND SLAVERY CONTRASTED. 239 

The missions in the West Indies, in 1858, embraced a member- 
ship of 92,494, belonging to the several Missionary Associations, 
as follows : * 



SOCIETIES. 

Wesleyans 

English Baptists 

Church of England 

London Missionary Society 

Moravians 

Scotch Presbyterians 

American Missionary Association 

Total 



MISSIONARIES. 



48,589 

tl8,009 

(596 

4,000 

t 36,441 

3,900 

300 



1,935 



18,247 

763 

384 

3,000 

3,000 
513 



25,861 



Tlie missions in South Africa, in 1858, embraced a member- 
ship of 14,258, belonging to the several missionary societies 
operating in that field, as follows : § 



SOCIETIES. 


MISSIONARIES. 


MEMBERS. 


SCHOLARS. 




29 

32 
8 
14 
12 
39 
50 

14 


1,882 
4,301 

109 
1,183 

106 
4,970 

1,647 


3,483 

310 

188 

7,479 

418 


London Missionary Society 










Gospel Propagation Society 








Total 


225 


14,258 


11,878 







In addition to the missionary force here stated, there were 10 
European or American assistants, and 154 native missionaries, 
and 672 native assistants. 

According to the Scotch Record, for 1861, these missions must 
have a less number of members now, than in 1850, before the 
Caffir war of 1851, '52, '53, as it places the number of scholars, 
for 1861, below that of Baird's Retrospect, for 1850, by 5,000. 

* Encyclopasdia of Missions, 1868, page 775. 
t Includes the churches not now aided by the Society. 

t These are later statistics, from American Christian Record, ] 860. This in- 
cludes the Danish islands as well as the British. 
§ Encyclopcedia of Missions, 1858, page 58. 



240 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The mission of the London Missionary Society, in the African 
Islands, reports a membership of' 1,170. 

The missions in West Africa include those of Sierra Leone 
and Liberia, and have a membership of 23,770. * 

In Canada, the mission of Rev. Mr. King, in 1859, had a mem- 
bership of 70, and an attendance of 200 to 300. f We have no 
other statistics from Canada, as to the colored churches, but have 
seen a newspaper statement that the membership is about 300. 

The progress of African evangelization, then, among the free 
colored people outside of the United States, will stand as follows : 

MEMBERS. 

"West Indies 111,935 

South Africa 14,258 

African Islands, f 1,170 

West Africa 23,770 

Canada, (estimated,) 300 

Total outside of the United States 151,433 

Total converts in the Slave States of the United States 465,000 

Difference in favor of missions in the United States 203,567 

The result of this contrast must forever silence the advocates 
of the British theory — that slavery presents an insuperable bar- 
rier to African evangelization. But these contrasts would be 
incomplete, were we to stop here. The Christian world feels 
encouraged to proceed with the missions in heathen countries. 
Look, then, at the following section, and see how their results 
compare with the results among our slaves. 

Section IX. — Contrast of the results of all the Mission- 
ary Force employed by Protestant Christendom, \\t:tii the 
results of the missions in the Slave States of the United 
States. 

This is one of the most interesting points in the whole of our 
contrasts. The Protestant missions, among heathen nations, are 
prosecuted by the Protestant Christian denominations throughout 
Europe and America. These missions have been extended to 
Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, West Indies, and North American 

* Scotch Record, 1861. 

t Address of Rev. Mr. King, iu Glasgow, Scotland, December, 1859. 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM AND SLAVERY. 241 

Indians. Newcomb's ENCYCLOPiEDiA of Missions, for 1858, gives 
the whole number of converts, in all these missions, at 211,3,89 ; 
but more recent estimates make the number, at present, approxi- 
mate 250,000. 

The converts in the slave States aye 465,000, and exceed the 
whole of the converts throughout heathendom by 215,000 ! 

Thus, while the larger number of religious men, throughout 
Christendom, have been denouncing American slavery as incom- 
patible with African evangelization ; a handful of pious men, in 
the slave States, regardless of the reproaches cast upon them, 
have labored for the salvation of the slave, with a success nearly 
double that attending the efforts of all the other missionaries 
throughout the heathen world. 

The Rev. Dr. Elliott, in his " Great Secession," on this point 
uses the following language ; in speaking of the success of the 
missionaries of the Methodist Church South, among the slaves : 

" Their missionary labors among the slaves of the South have no 
parallel in the world at this day. While they are denounced wfthout 
stint by Northern and some British abolitionists of the recent school, 
they are doing more good, practically and Scripturally, for the en- 
lightenment, reformation, elevation, and future advantageous emanci- 
pation of the slaves, than all their censurers are." 

Section X. — Contrast of the success of the Scottish 
American Presbyterian Churches, with that of the Mis- 
sionaries IN the Southern Slave States. 

Another contrast, here, will be useful. From causes known 
only to God himself, many of the religious denominations, besides 
those noticed in Section VI. of this Chapter, have made no such 
rapid progress as might have been expected from the numbers, 
the learning, and the zeal of their ministry. The Scotch Presby- 
terian Churches were the first to engage, successfully, in the work 
of discarding all slaveholders from their communion. * They 
once had a stronghold in the slave States, but had to withdraw to 
the free States, on account of the rigidness of the rules they 

*See Chapter VII. It is true that the Methodists, at the North, attempted 
the same thing, at an earlier day, but soon gave it up. 

16 



242 PULPIT POLITICS. 

adopted against slaveholding, when they emharked in the anti- 
slavery crusade. We have not been able to obtain the early 
statistics of these denominations ; but in 1829, the Associate 
Church had 10,141 members ; the Associate Reformed Synod of 
the West, probably not so many ; and the Reformed Presbyterian 
Church, then undivided, a much less number. The aggregate 
membership was about 25,000, certainly not more than that num- 
ber. In the year following, the number of Africans in the Chris- 
tian Church, in the United States, was about 140,000. It was 
under these circumstances, that the Scotch Presbyterian Churches 
began their anti-slavery excitement, in which it was contended 
that the Gospel could not prevail among the slave population, 
while they remained in bondage. 

The years 1860 and 1861 bring out results that should lead 
the clergymen of these denominations, who have heretofore taken 
such high anti-slavery ground, to pause and reflect on the results 
of their conduct. In 1859, the number of ministers was 525. 
Their labors have been devoted to the white population, in the 
free States. Beginning before the American Revolution, they have 
had a fair field of labor — not an obstacle existing except of their 
own creation. Here are the results of their labors on the one 
hand, and that of the missionaries among the colored people, in 
the slave States, on the other hand : 

MEUBEBS. 

United Presbyterian Church, 18G1 58,781 

Eeformed Presbyterian Church, (0. S.,) 1861 8,000 

Reformed Presbyterian Church, (N. S.,) 1861 10,000 

Total membership in Scotch Presbyterian Churches, * ... 76,781 
Total colored converts in slave States 465,000 

Excess of colored members over Scotch Presbyterians... 388,219 

On which side, now — Scotch Presbyterianism or slavery — do 
we find the Gospel most fatally hindered in its progress? On the 
side of the former, the conv«jrts have been raised, in thirty years, 
from about 25,000 to 76,700 : on that of the latter, from 140,000 
to 465,000 ! 

And, notwithstanding these results, the whole of these denom- 

* Presbyterian Historical Almanac, 1861. 



GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESBYTERIANS AND SLAVERY. 243, 

inations are still pressing their old theories upon public attention, 
with as much zeal as though the Gospel had been utterly excluded 
from the slave States, and not a child' of Africa had been brought 
to a knowledge of the Saviour ! 

Section XI. — Contrast of the Success of the General 
Assembly Presbyterians, with that of the Missionaries in 
THE Southern Slave States. 

The preceding section presents very strange results, indeed, as 
compared with what the Northern actors in the abolition drama 
expected to accomplish. The General Assembly Presbyterian 
Church was also much agitated by the abolition movement. Those 
who troubled her held the prevailing abolition theory, that slavery 
and the Gospel are incompatible ; and continued to press the ques- 
tion upon the attention of both General Assemblies, even up to 
1861. 

In 1830, this Church was undivided, and had a membership of 
173,329, as against 140,000 colored church members in the slave 
States. In 1859, when the Church was divided into two General 
Assemblies, the two bodies had a membership of 417,589, as against 
453,000 colored members in the Churches in the slave States ! 
But, in this membership of the General Assemblies there is in- 
cluded, as elsewhere stated, a colored membership of 18,000; leav- 
ing the white membership of these two bodies somewhat less than 
400,000, while the whole colored church members in the South 
were, at that date, more than 450,000 ! 

f 
Concluding Section. — The Christian character of the con- 
verts in the missions among the heathen, contrasted with 

THAT OF the CONVERTED SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In the earlier periods of African slavery in America, the utmost 
latitude of opinion was allowable, in speculating about the moral 
elevation of the slaves. But little was then known of the char- 
acter of the negro race, and still less of the laws governing the 
progress of Christian- missions among barbarous populations. The 
deep moral degradation of the African, throughout the world, was 
calculated to enlist the sympathies of Christian men. In project- 



244 PULPIT POLITICS. 

ing schemes for his relief, speculation had to supply the ofBce of 
fact ; and all Church legislation was merely a random venture to- 
ward a proper discharge of what was felt to be a moral duty — the 
Christian instruction of the colored people. In relation to all that 
was done, up to 1820, no man could then tell whether any other 
measures, than those projected, were more likely to promote the 
moral progress of the African race. As time rolled on, how- 
ever, light began to break in upon the darkness, and at the moment 
when the abolition excitement began, say 1830, the developments 
of Providence clearly indicated, to unprejudiced minds, the proper 
policy to be pursued. Many parts of the North had become 
crowded with free negroes, whose deep degradation had united the 
public in an effort to transfer them to Africa. Freedom, without 
the means of moral culture, had proved itself of no value to the 
colored man ; while, on the contrary, slavery, accompanied by re- 
ligious instruction, had given the Methodist Church, alone, in 
1830, a colored membership of nearly 70,000. Of these Chris- 
tian converts, only 1,280 were in the free States, outside of the 
Philadelphia Conference. Thus, the Gospel had begun, fairly, to 
show its power over the slave, and to demand of Christians a united 
effort for their conversion. But, instead of obeying this unequiv- 
ocal call of Divine Providence, the Churches, almost with one 
accord, suffered themselves to be led onward in efforts to secure 
equal civil rights for the slaves, instead of engaging in the more 
practical and useful work of preaching to them the Gospel, as a 
means of their moral elevatiop. 

As an apology for declining to cooperate in missions among the 
slaves, it has been denied that the slave converts are entitled to 
be considered as Christian, either in their intelligence, morality, 
or piety. In replying to this, it is only necessary to say, that if 
the colored members of the Church in the South are not to be 
classified with Christian men, then the converts in our heathen 
missions must also be denied a place in the Christian Church, as 
the standard of Christian morality is fully as high in the former 
as in the latter. It has been alleged, also, that the converts re- 
ported 'n the Southern Churches have been gathered, largely, by 
negro preachers, who, on getting up excitements, proceeded to en- 
roll all who offered, regardless of their having any just apprecia- 



SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 245 

tion of the nature of the step they were taking. But this is not 
the mode in which the work has been accomplished. The laws, in 
perhaps all the slave States, prohibit negro preaching, excepting 
in some rare cases. The mission work is performed by Avhite 
ministers, and the same rules are observed in the admission of mem- 
bers, and in their alfter subjection to discipline, that prevail among 
the white congregations of the respective denominations to which 
the missionaries belong. Quite a large proportion of the colored 
members, it must also be stated, belong to regularly organized 
Churches of white people ; and are, in every respect, subjected to 
the same rules which regulate the conduct of their white fellow- 
professors. That they are inferior in general intelligence to the 
white church members, will readily be admitted. But that they 
stand fair as to piety and purity of moral character, we have 
testimony from a source which is entitled to the confidence of 
every abolitionist. The Anti-Slavery Standard, of a late date, 
has the following in reference to this question : 

" Mr. Edward L. Pierce, one of the Massachusetts soldiers who 
served in the three months' campaign under Gen. Butler, contributes 
to the November number of the Atlantic Monthly an interesting arti- 
cle on the ' Contrabands at Fortress Monroe.' Mr. Pierce was assigned 
to the exclusive control and supervision of the negroes, directing the 
hours of their labor and their rest, without interference from any one ; 
and hence enjoyed peculiar facilities for observing their habits and 
arriving at just conclusions in regard to their condition. He shows 
us that the slaves are not imbruted savages, but an intelligent and 
docile race, 'quite equal,' he says, 'to the mass of the Southern pop- 
ulation,' if not so thrifty and practical as the Yankees. We copy a 
few passages from Mr. Pierce's excellent narrative : 

'" There was one striking feature in the contrabands which must 
not be omitted. I did not hear a profane or vulgar word spoken by 
them during my superintendence, a remark which it will be difficult 
to. make of any sixty-four white men taken together anywhere in oui 
army. Indeed, the greatest discomfort of a soldier, who desires to remain 
a gentleman ii> the camp, is the perpetual reiteration of language which 
no decent lips would utter in a sister's presence. But the negroes, so 
dogmatically pronounced unfit for freedom, were in this respect models 
for those who make high boasts of civility of manners and Christian 
culture. Out of the sixty-four who worked for us, all but half a 



246 PULPIT POLITICS. 

dozen were members of the Church, generally the Baptist. Although 
W'ithout a pastor, they held religious meetings on the Sabbaths which 
we passed in Hampton, which were attended by about sixty colored 
persons and three hundred soldiers. The devotions were decorously 
conducted, bating some loud shouting by one or two excitable brethren, 
which the better sense of the rest could not suppress. Their prayers 
and exhortations were fervent, and marked by a simplicity which is 
not unfrequently the richest eloquence. The soldiers behaved with 
entire propriety, and two exhorted them with pious unction, as chil- 
dren of one Father, ransomed by the same Redeemer.' " 

On perusing these statements, an anti-slavery clergyman re- 
marked, exultingly, that, if the negroes had made such progress 
as this, they should be free. His view of the subject is of a piece 
with much of the hasty generalization prevalent in reference to 
slavery. But it by no means follows that because a people, rising 
from barbarism, have become sober, orderly, and pious, under 
slavery, that they are, therefore, prepared for the enjoyment of 
independence. On this subject, the American Board is a compe- 
tent witness. Hear what it says in reference to its most prominent 
mission : 

" The Board can not be said to have completed the work of any 
one of its missions, if this involve the idea of a native Christian 
community able to stand alone. Yet several of the heathen commu- 
nities in which it has labored have been Christianized, in the popular 
acceptation of that term. The Sandwich Islands have been thus 

Christianized The nation was composed of thieves, drunkards, 

and debauches. The land was owned by the king and his chiefs, and 
the people were slaves. Constitutions, laws, courts of justice, there 
were none, and no conception of such things in the native mind. 
Property, life, every thing was in the hands of arbitrary, irresponsible 
chiefs, who filled the land with discord and oppression. But that peo- 
ple has become a Christian nation ; not civilized, in the modern accept- 
ation of the term ; not able, perhaps, to sustain itself unaided in any 
one great department of national existence. Laws, institutions, civil- 
ization, the great compact of social and political life^ are of slower 
growth than Christianity. A nation may be Christian, while its intel- 
lect is but partially developed, and its municipal and civil institutions 
are in their infancy. In this sense, the Hawaiian nation is a Christian 
nation, and will abide the severest scrutiny by every appropriate test." 



SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 247 

" But, SO much, indeed, was the blood of the nation polluted 

by an impure commerce with the world, before our Christian mission, 
that the people have a strong remaining tendency to licentiousness, 
which the Gospel will scarcely remove till a more general necessity 
exists for industry and remaining at home. The weakness of the nation 
is here."* 

Nations are composed of individuals. As a " nation may be 
Christian, while its intellect is but partially developed, and its 
civil institutions are in their infancy :" so an individual may be 
Christian, without possessing the necessary intelligence to make 
him a safe member of civil society — a proper judge of the laws 
necessary to its protection and progress. This, in the opinion of 
the whites at the South, is precisely the condition of the Christian 
converts among the blacks ; and constitutes a reason why they 
will not assent to emancipation. 

In comparing the condition of the converts gathered into the 
mission churches of the American Board, with the moral stand- 
ard prevailing among Church members in Christian countries, it 



" The fact undoubtedly is, that visible irregularities and disorders, and 
even certain immoralities, are more to be expected in churches gath- 
ered from among the heathen, than in the churches of Christendom ; 
and they are, at the same time, more consistent with grace in the 
Church, than in countries that have long enjoyed the light and influ- 
ence of the Gospel The popular sentiment at home is believed 

to have required too much of the missions. A standard has been pre- 
scribed for their ultimate success, which renders their satisfactory ter- 
mination quite impossible, or at best throws it into the far, uncertain 
future. The Christian religion has been identified, in the popular 
conception of it, with a general diffusion of education, industry, civil 
liberty, family government, and social order, and with the means of a 
respectable livelihood and a well-ordered community. Hence our 
idea of piety in native converts has generally involved the acquisition 
and possession, to a great extent, of these blessings; and our idea of 
the propagation of the Gospel by means of missions is, to an equal 
extent, the creation among heathen tribes and nations of a state of 

* "Memorial Volume," pages 253, 254, to which the reader is referred for 
details. 



248 PULPIT POLITICS. 

society such as we enjo}'. And for this vast iriiellectual, moral, social 
transformation we allow but a short time. We have expected the 
first generation of converts, even among savages, to come pretty fully 
into our fundamental ideas of morals, manners, political economy, so- 
cial organization, justice, equity, — although many of these are ideas 
which old Christian communities have been ages in acquiring. If we 
have discovered that converts under the torrid zone go half clothed, 
are idle on a soil where a small amount of labor supplies their wants, 
sometimes forget the apostle's cautions to his converts, ' not to lie one 
to another,' and 'to steal no more,' in communities where the grossest 
vice scarcely affects the reputation, and are slow to adopt our ideas of 
the rights of man, we at once doubt the genuineness of their conver- 
sion, and the faithfulness of their missionary instructors."* 

What are we to infer from all this, but that the standard among 
the converts from heathenism, in the mission churches of the 
American Board, is, in some respects, lower than we find it among 
Church members at home ; and that it is not to be expected that 
converts from heathenism should, in a single generation, attain a 
position, in every respect, equal to that which the Churches in 
Christian countries have gained after centuries of religious train- 
ing. But this admission of the Board is not intended to create 
the impression that the converts in their missions are not true 
Christians ; nor is the admission that the slave converts are not, 
in some respects, the equals of the white professors of religion, 
intended as an admission that they are not true disciples of 
Christ. 

The further admission of the Board is as important as it is 
true : that laws, institutions, civilization, the great compact of so- 
cial and political life, are of slower growth than Christianity ; and 
that, notwithstanding the Christian character of some of their mis- 
sions, the intellectual development made by the population is not 
in proportion to their religious progress ; and that, therefore, they 
are not prepared to stand alone, unsupported by the counsel and 
control of a superior race. This is exactly the view entertained, 
of the negro population of the South, by all considerate men. As 
a race, not' only in the South, but throughout the world, the blacks 
have made no such advances beyond their original barbarism, as 

* Memorial Volume, pages 250, 251. 



SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 249 

to be able to sustain civilized institutions without the direction 
and control of the superior races. It is so in the West Indies 
and Sierra Leone, where all civil affairs are under the control of 
the British ; it is so in Liberia, where the American Colonization 
Society still lends its friendly aid ; it is so everywhere ; and why 
should the opposite rule be demanded for the United States? We 
thank the American Board for its timely testimony in relation to 
the workings of Christian missions among the barbarous races. 
It gives encouragement to believe that our slave converts are not 
behind their fellow-converts in heathen lands. 

But it is urged, as an argument for emancipation, that the 
means of religious progress are not adequately supplied to the 
slave population of the South. The preaching of the Gospel, and 
oral instruction in the Sabbath-schools — including the memorizing 
of the Catechism and portions of Scripture — embrace about all the 
means of instruction now publicly afforded to the slaves. Is this 
plan of teaching sufficient to enlighten a people born in the midst 
of a Christian civilization, where they have been uninfluenced by 
pagan superstitions and idolatry ? Let us again refer to the Amer- 
ican Board for the results of their experience on this point : 

" There has been a growth of experience and skill in the conduct 
of missions during the past half century. It is indeed true that our 
fathers, at the outset, gave the preeminence to the preaching of the 
Gospel, in their theory of missions, as really as do their successors. 
Thus they wrote as far back as the year 1813, and nothing stronger 
can be said now : ' Important as the distribution of the Scriptures 
among the heathen, in their own language, is held to be by us and by 
the Christian public generally, it should never be forgotten that the 
preaching of the Gosjoel, in every part of the earth, is indispensable to 
the general conversion of mankind. Though the Scriptures alone 
have, in many individual cases, been made the instrument of regener- 
ation, yet we have no account of any very extensive diffusion of Christ- 
ianity except where the truths of the Scriptures have been preached. 
Were the heathen generally anxious to receive the Scriptures and to 
learn divine truth, they would, like the Ethiopian eunuch, apply for 
instruction to those who had been previously acquainted with the same 
Scriptures, and, when asked if they understood what they had read, 
would reply, 'How can we, except some man should guide us ?' The 
distribution of the Bible excites inquiry, and often leads those who 



250 PULPIT POLITICS. 

receive that precious book to attend public worship in the sanctuary. 
But the preaching of the Gospel is, after all, the grand means appointed 
by Infinite Wisdom for the conversion and salvation of men. With- 
out this, the Scriptures, however liberally distributed, will have com- 
paratively little efi'ect among any people, whether Pagan or nominally 
Christian.' And again, in 1817: 'The translation and dispersion of 
the Scriptures, and schools for the instruction of the young, are parts, 
and necessary parts, of the great design. But it must never be for- 
gotten, or overlooked, that the command is, to ' preach the Gospel to 
every creature,' and that the preaching of the word, however foolish 
it may seem to men, is the grand mean appointed by the wisdom of 
God for the saving conversion of the nations.' 

" From this practical view of the work, taken by the Board at the 
opening of its career, there has been no intentional departure, either 
by the Prudential Committee or by the missions. Schools and the 
press have always been regarded as subordinate to preaching. When 
agriculture and the mechanic arts have also been taught, as in the In- 
dian missions, and at first on the Sandwich Islands, it has been as a 
subordinate means. At the same time, there has been a tendency in 
the more important of the auxiliary influences to transcend their 
proper limits. Book-making has sometimes acquired an undue promi- 
nence, especially in the early periods, when some brethren may have 
found it easier to translate the Scriptures than to preach in a foreign 
tongue, and when preaching yielded little apparent fruit, and schools 
were easily multiplied, and tracts and books could be circulated to any 
extent. In the chapter on the difficulties in obtaining the Board's 
charter, it was seen how translating and circulating the Scriptures then 
preponderated, in the public mind, over preaching as a means of con- 
verting the heathen. 

" The subordinate agencies have been gradually falling into their 
places, and it is reasonable to expect, under the lead of the Great 
Captain, that the progress of the Gospel will be more rapid in the 
second half-century than it has been in tho first." 

The remarks of the Board on this topic are quoted entire. The 
preaching of the Gospel, in its opinion, is the grand means 
appointed by Infinite Wisdom for the conversion and salvation of 
men. Schools, the press, agriculture, mechanic arts, circulating 
the Scriptures, are viewed as subordinate means. According to 
this view — and its accuracy will not be denied — the slave popu- 
lation are in the enjoyment of the grand means appointed for 



SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 251 

the conversion and salvation of men. They have the Gospel 
preached to them ; they also enjoy the subordinate meaos to a 
limited extent ; and are in constant training in the pursuits of 
agriculture or the mechanic arts — a training essential to progress 
in civilization. Upon the whole, their means of improvement are 
fully equal to those possessed by the people of the primitive 
churches, or their successors, down to the time of the discovery 
of the art of printing, and the general diffusion of education by 
common schools. If, then, the slaves enjoy as great privileges as 
the primitive Christians, and have supplied to them the grand 
means necessary to success in modern missions, why should it be 
thought a strange thing that they, also, should have accepted the 
offered salvation, and been transformed, in the spirit of their minds, 
into the divine image of Jesus, in knowledge, righteousness, and 
true holiness.* 

* Among the various arguments employed to prove tlie necessity of abolishing 
slavery, there is one, remaining unnoticed, to which attention must be called. 
The seeming slow progress of the Gospel, in heathen lands, is accounted for on 
the principle that the missionaries belong to a country tolerating slavery; and 
that, before success can be expected, slavery must be abolished in our country. 
A speaker in a religious convention states the case as follows: 

"We have a pure Gospel to send, but we disgrace it. If our Christianity 
was in pure hands, it would be effective. But we have in our land covetous- 
ness, drunkenness and slavery. They to whom we would send the Gospel hear 
of these things, and they mock us." * 

During the same meeting another speaker said: 

" There are three millions of human beings in bondage in this land to whom 
the word of God can not be preached. Our fearful complicity in this giant 
wrong is one great reason why God has made the heavens as iron and the 
earth as brass." t 

Strange, that these reverend gentlemen should be so illy informed, or rather 
that they should allow their prejudices to mislead them so egregiously. 
What! Slavery now an obstacle to foreign missions, when it presented no 
barrier in the days of the Apostles and their successors! The ministers of the 
Gospel at this day, must not be allowed to shield their own inefficiency by any 
such plea. Kome had sixty millions of slaves at the dawn of the Christian 
Era; and yet the Gospel spread abroad with great rapidity. It is not the 

* Address of Ror. J. B. Johnson, before the Convention of the Scottish American Presbyterian 
Churches, Xenia, Ohio, March, 1857. 
fKev. E. A. Brown. 



252 PULPIT POLITICS. 

That the standard of Christian character among the converted 
slaves, is as high as that of the converts in the foreign missions, 
can not be doubted when the circumstances are considered in 
•which the two classes are placed — the one growing up amidst the 
elevating maxims of Christian civilization, the other under the 
debasing customs of heathenism. The reasons offered for ignor- 
ing the missionary labors among the slaves at the South, on ac- 
count of any existing imperfections among the Christian converts, 
will apply with equal force to missions among the heathen. If 
the one should be abandoned on account of inefficiency, the other 
should no longer be prosecuted, for the reason of their more lim- 
ited success. But if both have been successful, as is true beyond 
all doubt, then the prayers and contributions of Christians should 
not be withheld in behalf of the one any more than of the other. 

A word as to the difference in the success of the Gospel among 
our slave population, as compared with the heathen populations 
addressed by our foreign missionaries. Isaac Taylor, as previous- 
ly quoted, states, that — 

" Christianity at first went wherever a preparation had been made 
for its reception by the scattering and settlement of the Jewish race, 
and by the preexistent diffusion of the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment, in the Greek language. Within these limits the Gospel seated 
itself, and there it held its position with more or less of continuity ; 
and beyond the same limits it was, indeed, carried forth, and it won 
its triumphs ; but soon it lost its hold ; soon it retreated, and disap- 
peared, leaving only some scattered and scarcely appreciable frag- 
ments on its spots, to denote the course it had taken."* 

It is a point of great interest to know why it was that Chris- 
abolition of slavery that is so much needed, as a ministry imbued with the 
spirit of the Apostles — a ministry that will give heed to teaching the Word, 
instead of preaching politics. But the assertion that slavery is a barrier to 
the progress of the Gospel in heathen countries, is not more strange than the 
declaration that the Gospel can not be preached to the three millions of slaves 
in the Southern States! We scarcely know how to view such declarations as 
we have here quoted. These speakers did not intend to tell untruths, or pre- 
sent false deductions from historical facts; and, yet, that they did so, is abund- 
antly evident from the testimony that has been produced. It is from such 
careless, such criminal conduct, that the public have been misled. 

* Isaac Taylor's Wesley and Methodism, page 293. 



SLAVE CONVERTS CONTRASTED WITH HEATHEN CONVERTS. 25-i 

tianity failed in establishing itself permanently, excepting where 
the Jews and the translations of the Hebrew Scriptures had im- 
parted to the population some knowledge of the true God. An 
editorial in a religious paper, under charge of the professors in 
an eminent theological seminary, says, that one-half of the con- 
verts in the Roman Empire were slaves;* and this statement 
coincides with the opinions of the historian Gibbon. Many of 
these slaves, doubtless, had been brought from the surrounding 
nations, where Christianity afterward failed to maintain a foot- 
hold, f Why was it that those who were captives in Rome, so 
much more readily received the Gospel, than those of their coun- 
trymen who had not been enslaved? It can only be accounted 
for on the principle, that their residence in Rome was a means of 
bringing them under the influence of the teachings which had pre- 
pared both Jews and Romans for the reception of the Gospel. In 
this result we have a very significant fact; and one that is ap- 
plicable to the slave population of the United States. It enables 
us to answer, intelligibly, the question, why there should have 
been nearly double the number of converts in the slave States, 
from the ranks of the African race, that there are in all the mis- 
sions of Protestant Christendom established throughout the heathen 
world. The Africans under American slavery, like the captives 
in Rome, have had a preparation for the reception of the Gospel, 
in consequence of their contact with a people possessing a knowl- 
edge of the true God, and of the way of salvation through faith 
in his Son. 

But this lesson from Roman history, confirmed by the results 
under American slavery, has a still more important bearing, as 
affecting the question of the conversion of the world. Our mis- 

* Christian Herald and Presbyterian Recorder, Cincinnati and Chicago. 

t We have recently seen a statement, made on the floor of Congress, that 
Christianity entered Africa only where the Roman arms controlled the popula- 
tion; that there it greatly flourished as long as the Roman power prevailed; 
but that, when Rome declined, and her power was no longer maintained in 
Africa, Christianity also declined, and finally disappeared. Rev. J. L. Wilson, 
long a missionary in Africa, on the Gaboon, has expressed the opinion that the 
great want of Africa, to render it accessible to the Gospel, is the establishment 
of civil government. It would seem then that God puts honor on his own 
ordinances — civil government and the Church. 



254 PULPIT POLITICS. 

sionary systems arc doing for idolatrous nations a preparatory 
work far more important than the Jews did for Rome. The sacred 
Scriptures, now complete, are being translated into the languages 
of every nation under the sun ; and the day seems dawning when 
the kingdom of Christ shall have universal dominion in the earth. 
A comprehensive view of the agencies at work in the propaga- 
tion of Christianity, and the certainty of the results which must 
follow the general circulation of the Scriptures and the preaching 
of the Gospel, makes the heart of the Christian swell with emotions 
too great for utterance, and should lead the man who would raise 
a finger to obstruct its progress among any class of men, slave or 
free, to doubt whether the love of Christ pervades Ils soul. 



CHAPTER IV 



AFRICAN SLAVERY AND AFRICAN EMANCIPATION, IN THEIR EFFECT.^ 
RESPECTIVELY, UPON THE NATIONAL WELFARE OF THE CAI)- 
CASIANS. 

Thus far, mainly, the investigations have had reference to the 
moral and religious effects produced upon the African race, in 
their connection with the Caucasian, whether as bondmen or freed- 
men. The object in view would be imperfectly accomplished, 
without an ex^amination of the effects which the blacks, under 
slavery, and emancipation, respectively, have had upon the eco- 
nomical and political welfare of the countries into which they have 
been introduced. When this is done, it will afford a useful lesson 
on the dangers of premature emancipation, and the hasty enfran- 
chisement of uncivilized men, upon the progress of civil liberty and 
the safety of civil government. 

Section I. — Effects of Emancipation in Brazil, Mexico, 
AND THE South American Republics. 

At the time of the prohibition of the slave trade by England 
and the United States, Brazil belonged to Portugal, and the re- 
maining South American provinces and Mexico to Spain. The 
most active period of the slave trade, as already shown, was that 
which succeeded its prohibition, and that which followed West In- 
dia Emancipation. All the slaves exported westward from Africa, 
during this epoch, were taken to the Spanish, Portuguese, and 
French colonies of South America and the West India islands, 
This gave them a very considerable African population — the slaves 
of Brazil, in 1850, being equal in number to those of the United 
States, and the number in the Spanish islands falling but little 
short of one-third of that number. The French colonies, at the 

(255) 



256 PULPIT POLITICS. 

time of emancipation, in 1848, had a colored population of 416,755, 
of whom 257,009 were slaves. 

Now, what have been the results with these our neighbors ? 
Brazil has never emancipated her slaves. She remains a stable, 
progressive, and prosperous government, as compared with the 
countries by which she is surrounded, although her slave popula- 
tion is double that of the white citizens. 

Cuba, still belonging to Spain, has never emancipated its slaves, 
but continues to augment their numbers by means of the slave 
trade. Its productiveness is regularly on the increase, and its 
economical prosperity unsurpassed by any equal extent of terri- 
tory in the world. 

Mexico, in 1813, threw off the yoke of Spain, and declared 
herself a Republic. But the attempt of Iturbide to restore a des 
potism, raising up a race of military chieftains for his overthrow, 
afterwards produced a struggle for power, resulting, in 1824, in 
the prohibition of the slave trade, and the adoption of a Constitu- 
tion declaring free all born after that date. Pedraza being elected 
President, Santa Anna, at the head of the military, interposed, 
and placed in the presidential chair the defeated candidate, Guer- 
rero, who — to strengthen himself, and the better to resist an inva- 
sion from Spain, then in process of execution — issued a decree, 
September, 1829, emancipating all slaves. 

Thus was liberty and equality at once secured to the blacks of 
Mexico, and, under the law, the African, in a moment, made the 
equal of the descendants of the proud Castillians who had con- 
quered Montezuma ; * and thus, also, was another instance of 
emancipation effected under circumstances where it was required 
by a political necessity, just as, in England, it was demanded 
by a conjectural economical necessity. But in neither case was 
the good of the black man the principal motive urged to give to 
him his freedom — it being in the one case to secure troops to sus- 
tain a usurper, in the other with the belief that free labor would 
be more profitable than slave labor. 

And what have been the results of the Mexican expedient to 
gain a political advantage, by placing the African on terms of 

« See " Ethiopia," page 102. 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN BRAZIL, MEXICO, &C. 257 

equality, side by side with the Caucasian? Happily, the conse- 
quences have been depicted by a master hand, in the abolition 
ranks. We refer to the late Judge Jay, who thus drew the pic- 
ture of Mexico to the life, in 1846 : 

" The republic of Mexico had long been the prey of military chief- 
tains, who, in their struggle for power, and the perpetual revolutions 
they had excited, had exhausted the resources of the country. With- 
out money, without credit, without a single frigate, without commerce, 
without union, and with a feeble population of seven or eight millions, 
composed chiefly of Indians and mixed breeds, scattered over immense 
regions, and for the most part sunk in ignorance and sloth, Mexico 
was certainly not a very formidable enemy to the United States." * 

In addition. Judge Jay states that the exports from Mexico, in 
1842, were, exclusive of gold and silver, only one million and a 
half of dollars. It has increased but little since that period, owing 
to its being torn and distracted by almost constant Avars, and be- 
cause it has none of the elements of progress in its present state 
of society. 

Here, now, we have the results of the practical application, by 
the Mexicans, of the doctrine that all men are created free and 
equal ! Indians, negroes, whites, were all declared equal at the 
ballot-box ; and scarcely a single President, elected by the popular 
vote since that event occurred, has ever been able, for any con- 
siderable time, to maintain himself in his seat. Such has been 
Mexican emancipation, and such its results ! 

The condition of the South American Republics is so nearly 
like that of Mexico, that details in relation to the results of their 
emancipation schemes may be spared. The portrait of Mexico, 
with some slight modifications, may stand for the whole group ; and 
its state of society may be inferred from the character of its pop- 
ulation. Mr. Jay states it as follows : 

Whites 1,000,000 

Mixed Breeds 2,009,509 

Negroes 6,000 

Indians 4,000,000 

Total 7,015,509 

* Jay's Review of the Mexican War. 

17 



258 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The wisdom and foresight of the Fathers of the Republic of 
the .United States, averted such evils as have afflicted Mexico, by 
not committing the folly of commingling barbarism and civiliza- 
tion, on equal terms, in the Constitution. Had they emancipated 
the negroes, and, like Mexico, admitted both negroes and Indians 
to citizenship, the United States, to-day, might have been little 
better, in its moral and civil condition, than Mexico has been for 
years. By the course which we adopted, the emigrants from Eu- 
rope, with their labor, skill, capital, and intelligence, flocked to our 
shores, instead of to the milder climates of Mexico and South 
America. Thus we were strengthened while they remained weak 
and distracted — the ignorance and degradation of their barbarous 
population rendering it a suitable instrument, in the hands of am- 
bitious military adventurers, for the disturbance of the public peace. 
Had the course of Mexico, toward her uncivilized population, 
been productive of the greatest good to the cause of humanity, it 
would aiford a justification of her action. But no one familiar 
with the facts will, for a moment, deny that the great body of 
our slaves are better provided for, and have made more rapid 
advances in civilization, than the mongrel breeds of Mexico ; and 
yet, the Indians, mixed breeds, and negroes, have long been in the 
possession of the privileges of citizenship in that Republic — have 
long had all the rights which abolitionists claim for the slave, 
without any of the blessings which, they insist, will necessarily 
follow in the wake of emancipation. 

Another remark or two may be useful here, in reference to the 
subject of emancipation. Human freedom is the richest of bless- 
ings, where men are prepared for it ; but it may be productive of 
serious evils when prematurely conferred. Take an example, in 
another relation of life : the inhei'itance of wealth is a boon that 
may bring lasting happiness ; but the law wisely forbids its trans- 
fer to the heir, until he has attained an age when it is supposed 
he must be capable of using it prudently. The negro and Indian 
races are to be considered as minors in their relations to the free- 
dom guarantied in civilized society, and the great mass of them, at 
present, and most likely for ages to come, as wholly incapable of 
using it safely. The time may come when it will be otherwise ; but, 
till then, the prudent Christian will not be in haste to disturb existing 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN HATTI. 259 

relations. Dr. Livingstone, who has enjoyed the very l^est op- 
portunities for studying the condition of African society, recom- 
mends this course of policy to the British nation, in its eflForts to 
promote cotton culture in Africa. Slavery there is general, and 
must be let alone, if increased cultivation be desired. * The peo- 
ple of Britain, after immense sacrifices in the cause of African 
freedom, are now forced to acquiesce in this policy. This point 
will be referred to again. 

Section II. — Effects of Emancipation in the Island of 
Hayti. 

In Hayti, the negroes found themselves freemen, before they 
were prepared to profit by the change. It is not claimed that 
they would have been better in slavery. Their masters had done 
nothing for their moral advancement ; and a thousand years, under 
such treatment as they had endured, would have still found them 
savage. But freedom to savage Africans, like the freedom of the 
savage Indians, does not, necessarily, become an element of pro- 
gress in civilization. We have a proof of this in the economical 
results of Haytien emancipation. We are aware, however, that 
too much importance may be attached to the production of wealth, 
as indicating an increasing civilization ; and, yet, it is the best 
evidence the world can have on that subject. Abolitionists readily 
avail themselves of it as an argument for emancipation, when the 
statistics are supposed to be on their side. But while increasing 
production certainly shows that intelligence guides cultivation, 
the subordinate operatives may be acquiring intelligence in no 
greater degree than the mules they drive. Such was, in general, 
the slavery of the British West Indies ; and such is now, specially, 
the slavery of Cuba and Brazil. The truth is, that increasing 
ability to export the products of slave labor, is no proof that the 
slaves, themselves, are advancing in civilization. It only shows 
that the ruling class, by judicious management, are making slave 
labor a profitable system. On the other hand, where a free peo- 
ple, who are the owners of the soil, are, from year to year, aug- 

■•■■' The Doctor suggests that to make labor effective, the present condition of 
society must be left undisturbed. 



260 PULPIT POLITICS. 

meriting the amount of their exports and imports, or increasing 
their manufacturing as well as their agricultural industry, it is 
proof positive that they are advancing in civilization. But where 
a community of free people, for a long series of years, fail to in- 
crease the amount of their exports, and do not manufacture their 
own fabrics and implements,, it is evident that they lack ordinary 
industry and energy and can not be progressing in civilization. 
And further : where a country has once shown itself as possessing 
extensive sources of wealth, and then suddenly loses nearly all its 
capacity for production, without any diminution in the fertility 
of its soil, the cause of the decline must be sought for in the 
changed condition of the people. 

Hayti furnishes an illustration of the correctness of the pre- 
ceding observations. That island was exceedingly productive 
before emancipation ; but its productions were the fruits of com- 
pulsory labor, under the control of superior intelligence. Its ex- 
ports, then, were very large — being equal to three-fifths of the 
produce of all the French West India colonies. They amounted, 
in value, to more than $50,000,000; and the island, in return, 
consumed, of French manufactures, more than $49,430,000. * 
This statement has reference, only, to the French part of the 
island, which, in 1789, had a population of 30,826 whites, 27,548 
free colored persons,! and 480,000 slaves employed in agriculture. 
The Spanish part of the island employed only 15,000 slaves in 
agriculture. % 

" The political troubles of Hayti began in 1790, between the mulat- 
toes and whites, the slaves, remaining industrious, quiet, and orderly. 
But in August, 1792, the slaves joined in the rebellion, and the mas- 
sacre of the whites commenced. The most dreadful scenes of cruelty 
and bloodshed continued to be enacted until 1801, when a constitution 
was adopted, and the island, under the name of Hayti, formally pro- 
claimed an independent neutral power. § At the close of this year, 
Bonaparte made an effort to reconquer the island, and, in order to 

* Blackwood's Magazine, ]848, page G. 
t Westminster Review, 1850, page 261. 
X Macgregor, page 1152. 

I St. Domingo was the the name by which the island was known previous to 
this date. 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN IfAYTI. 261 

fuieceed, tae French General, Le Clerc, ^rst attempted to restore the 
planters to tlieir former authority over the negroes, many of whom, 
in the preceding struggles, had been granted their freedom ; but, fail- 
ing in this, he was forced, as a last resort, on the 25th of April, 1802, 
to ' proclaim liberty and equality to all the inhabitants, without regard 
to color.' The Haytien chieftains, Touissant, Dessalines, Christophe, 
etc., being immediately deserted by the blacks, were forced to submit, 
and the French sovereignty was again recognized throughout Hayti. 
As a first step to deprive the people of their efficient leaders, Le Clerc 
seized Touissant and his family, in the night, about the middle of 
May, and hurried them on board a vessel, which sailed immediately 
for France. * This act of perfidy at once aroused the population to 
resistance ; and the French, after a loss of 40,000 men by disease 
and war, and being menaced by a British fleet, were compelled to 
capitulate, November, 1803, and, with a remnant of the army, of only 
8,000 men, beg leave to depart from the island. Dessalines now as- 
sumed the authority, and a general massacre of the remaining French 
inhabitants took place." f 

The intellect of the island had disappeared amidst the savage 
butcheries that occurred, and with it the capacity of the popula- 
tion for productive industry. J Look at the facts as presented in 



* Confined to a loathsome dungeon, he died the next year. 

t See Life of Benjamin Lundy, and also Macgregor, as condensed in "Ethi- 
opia." 

I The loss of Hayti to France subjected Napoleon to the necessity of furnishing 
a supply of sugar for the nation. The cultivation of the beet-root was encour- 
aged, and by this means, together with the increased production of cane sugar 
in the other French islands, the supply was kept up. In 1848, the consump- 
tion of sugar in France, of all kinds, was 290,000,000 lbs.; of which 1-10,000,- 
000 lbs. were of beet-root sugar produced at home. The emancipation of the 
slaves in the French islands took place in 1848. In 1840, they produced of 
cane sugar, 161,500,000 lbs. For the first nine months of 1847, the year pre- 
ceding emancipation, they supplied 108,884,177 lbs., showing a continuous 
increase under slavery; but no sooner had emancipation fairly been inaugura- 
ted, than, as was the case in the British West India islands, a decrease of cul- 
tivation followed, so that for the first nine months of 1849, they supplied only 
96,929,336 lbs., being a falling off to the extent of 71,854,841 lbs. in the first 
nine months of freedom. These results have thrown the French people more 
and more upon the consumption of beet-root sugar, so that, with a heavy 
duty on foreign sugars, they at present consume but very little slave-grown 
sugar. 



262 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



the relative amounts of the exports, before and after the freedom 
of the island was secured : * 



YEARS. 

1789 

1790 

1801 

1818 

1819 

1820 

1821 

1822 

1823 

1824 

1825 

1826 

1835 

1836 

1837 

1838 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1848 



SL-GAB, LBS. 


COFFEE, LBS. 


COTTON, LBS. 


KEMAKKS. 


141,089,931 


76,835,219 


7,004,274 


Island tranquil. 


163,318,810 


68,151,180 


6,286,126 


Whites & mulatto's at war. 


18,534,112 


43,420,270 


2,480.340 


Slaves freed in 1793. 


5,443,765 


26,065,200 


474,118 


Boyer in power. 


3,790,300 


29,240,919 


216,103 




2,517,289 


35,137,759 


346,839 




600,934 


29,925,951 


820,563 




200,451 


24,235,372 


592,368 




14,920 


33,802,837 


332,256 




5,106 


44,269,084 


1,028,045 




2,020 


36,034,300 


815,697 




32,864 


32,189,784 


620,972 




1,097 


48,352,371 


1,649,717 


Exports for whole Island. 


16,199 


37,662,672 


1,072,555 






30,845,400 


1,013,171 






49,820,241 








7.889,092 


1,6.35,420 




741 


46,126,272 


922,575 


Republic declai-ed. 


1,363 


.34,114,717 
t 33,600,000 


1,591,454 





The independence of Ilayti dates from the year 1803. Its 
population at this time was 348,000, X being 132,000 less than 
the slave population in 1789. The preceding statistical table ex- 
hibits the effects of the freedom of the negroes upon the economi- 
cal interests of the island in a very suggestive form. The soil, 
after the revolution, was owned by the blacks themselves, and it 
had lost none of its fertility ; and, yet, the exports soon ran down, 
in all the articles requiring constant labor, to nearly nothing. 
Even coffee § which grows almost unaided, suffered an enormous 

* Macgi'cj^or, London Edition, 1847. t Campbell Arnott & Co. 

i Macgregor, page 1152. The histoi'y is given more at large iu "Ethiopia." 
I In remarking ou the productions of Dominicana, Mr. Harris, iu his " Sum- 
mer on the borders of the Carribeean Sea," explains why it is that the article 
of CofiFee is still exported to a considerable extent, while all other productions 
have been almost entirely discontinued. " There is some CofiFee, which grows 
wild in abundance through the island and on the mountains, and is collected 
and shipped. After the abandonment of the CoiFee plantations, the trees con- 
tinued to grow thick on them, and finally spread into the woods and on to the 
mountains, where the^' now grow wild in great quantities. Lacking the proper 
culture, its quality is not the best, but the climate and soil ia capable of pro- 
ducing it unexcelled by any in Porto Rico or any of the "West ludies or Brazil. 
The writer is informed, however, that there arc a few Coffee plantations under 
culture about St Domingo City. ' 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN HAYTI. 263 

diminution. Tlie subsequent history of Ilayti is interesting, as 
illustrating the instability of its government: 

" The reign of the first emperor, Dessalines, was short and turbulent, 
and his designs against the mulattoes cost him his life. After the 
death of Dessalines, 1807, General Christophe was made chief magis- 
trate, and, in 1811, crowned himself King Henry I. Meanwhile the 
mulattoes, having cause to distrust him also, elected General Petion to 
preside in the southwest, which he did to the entire satisfaction of his 
constituents, by many of whom he is still affectionately remembered. 
He died in 1818. Christophe shot himself iu 1820. In 1822, Boyer, 
who had been elected President in 1818, united the whole island 
under his government." 

The revolution of 1842, which caused Boyer to flee, placed 
Reviere in the Presidency. Two years after, tlie Dominicans 
overpowered Reviere, and in February, 1844, reestablished their 
government, or rather the present government of Dominicana. 
In 1849, Solouque, the President of Hayti, undertook to recon- 
quer Dominicana, but was defeated by General Santana, its Pres- 
ident. * The subsequent history of Ilayti is familiar to the intel- 
ligent reader. After passing through the farcical scene, under 
Solouque, of calling itself an empire, with an emperor wearing a 
royal crown of a half million's value, it is once more revolutionized, 
and declared a republic, under Geffard. The other portion of the 
island, Dominicana, has recently been threatened by the Spanish 
government, and may be permanently reiinnexed to that croAvn. 

Between 1820 and 1829, a brisk emigration from the United 
States to Ilayti, was conducted, which transferred 8,000 free col- 
ored persons to that island ; but no good came of it, the moral 
condition of the population being such, that the emigrants, unsus- 
tained by the whites who sent them, soon sunk to the level of the 
natives. 

The standard of morals and intelligence is very low, indeed, in 
Hayti and Dominicana ; but we shall omit the details of facts, 
here, as not necessary to our purpose. In referring to the igno- 
rance and degradation of the population, we mean no disparagc- 

* These historical statements are mainly derived from a small work, by Mr. 
J. Dennis Harris, Emigration Agent for Hayti, entitled " A Snninier on the 
borders of the Carribeean Sea," ISCO. The author is a respectable colored man. 



264 puLriT POLITICS. , 

ment of the African race, in the sense that the Haytiens are to be 
censured for their ignorance. In Africa the race is barbarous. 
Under the slavery of St. Domingo, no adequate provision existed 
for their elevation. Freedom brought with it no institutions of 
learning for the population in general. Their rulers have been 
military despots — necessarily so; — and the youth, like their 
fathers, have risen into manhood under circumstances that pre- 
cluded the possibility of progress. 

From the best information possessed, it is safe to affirm, that 
the slaves of the United States are greatly in advance, morally 
and intellectually, of the free negro population of Hayti. * This 
assertion will not be disputed; and the fact is not stated to afford 
an argument in behalf of slavery, but only to illustrate the truth 
of the position taken by Franklin, that mere emancipation does 
not necessarily elevate the negro in the scale of humanity. 
Slavery and freedom are both alike in this respect, where no 
means of intellectual and moral culture are provided. Conse- 
quently, there may be progress under slavery, while the intellect 
may be at a dead stand-still under freedom. It is in this respect, 
mainly, that the colored race in the United States have differed 
so Avidely from their fellows in all other countries. Limited as the 
means of improvement may be, which are afforded to the Ameri- 
can slave, they are very greatly superior to the advantages en- 
joyed by an equal number of the blacks in any other portions of 
the world. 

A word of explanation is needed in relation to the present 
economical interests of Hayti. The amount of its exports, down 
to 1848, are given on a preceding page. Its total foreign exports, 
at present, are not accessible, but its traffic with the United States, 
which is understood to be its principal market, for the year end- 
ing June 30, 1860, was as follows : The total value of imports 
into the United States, from Hayti, was $2,062,723, of which 
$1,679,657, was for 15,621,751 lbs. of coffee; while the exports 
to Hayti, from the United States, were, in value, $2,441,905, chiefly 
provisions. The exports to Dominicana were only $156,054, and 
the imports from it, $283,098. 

♦The term "Hayti/' is used here to designate the whole Island of St. Do- 
mingo. 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES. 265 

The effects of emancipation upon Mexico, the South American 
Republics, and Hayti, in retarding their progress, interrupting 
their peace, and destroying their prosperity, can now be readily 
understood by intelligent men. On this question there is no longer 
any difference of opinion. 

Section III. — Effects of Emancipation in the British 
West India Islands. 

As regards the British West Indies, there is, however, consider- 
able difference of opinion, both in Europe and the United States, 
in relation to the effects of emancipation, and many contradictory 
statements have appeared. Generally, the subject has been argued 
in reference to the economical interests involved — some insisting 
that emancipation has been an economical failure ; others, that it 
has been an economical success. The truth can only be discovered 
by a careful examination of the leading facts, in the history of the 
British West Indies, under both slavery and freedom. This we 
shall proceed to do. 

The subject necessarily divides itself into four parts : the pro- 
ductiveness of the islands previous to the suppression of the slave 
trade in 1808 ; their productiveness from that date to the passage 
of the emancipation act in 1833 ; their productiveness under the 
apprenticeship system from 1834 to 1838 ; and their productive- 
ness under freedom from 1839 to the present date, as indicated by 
the exports. 

The statistics can not be obtained for the whole of the British 
islands, for each one of these periods; for this reason, and because 
it best represents the results of emancipation, the island of Ja- 
maica is taken. It is, by far, the largest of the whole group, and 
has been unaffected by great density of population, or the intro- 
duction of coolie labor. Sugar being the principal production of 
the island, the exports of that commodity alone are given. The 
same degree of reduction occurred as to rum also, which has always 
been an important article of export. To save space, the average 
exports for several years together, in most cases, are presented; 
but in no instance are the figures so collated, as to give an erro- 
neous impression. The few years given separately were extraor- 
dinary ones, being either above or below the general average : 



266 PULPIT POLITICS. 



Exports of Sugar from 


tTie Island of Jamaica. * 


1772 to 1775 : - - 

17S8 lo 1791 


TKa£5. ?0rVD5. 

„ 218.571.- ' 

. """!"""."!" lis!- " : 
13).:. : 

75.S. - 


1 \-o% .^ i-o« 


. 




6r.yi4.v 

- 67:53»^i.v 




- - 


' ■ 





To comprehend the bearing of the foregoing statisncE. it m-asi 
be borne in mind that the slave trade was prohibited in 1808. and 
all supplies of labor from Africa suspended; that in 1833 the 
emancipation act was passed, leaving the negroes, after August 
1st. 1834, in the condition of apprentices : and, finally, that 
emancipation was fully effected in 1838, since which the cultiva- 
tion of the island has depended upon the labor of the negroes 
alone — no coolies, to any effective extent, having been iinported 
into Jamaica by the planters. The island has Aus been depend- 
ent upon the emancipated blacks for its cultivation, and has been 
losing its ability to export, from year to year, until, in the three 
years ending with 1858, its sugar exportation was reduced to an 
annual average of 46,456,000 pounds, or more than 191.000,000 
pounds less than what it was in 1805. The effect upon the pro- 
duction of cotton was equally disastrous — the exports of that arti- 
cle in 1800 being 17,000,000 poun.is, and in 1840 but 427,0<X» 
pounds. 

Receni'.v, hj^ever, a certain class of writers — while admitting 
that the prosperity of the West India islands had been greatly 
reduced for some time after emancipation — have represente-l 
them as rapidly recovering from their depressed condition ; and 
that they are now exporting a greater amount of products than 
they had done while slavery prevailed. The Amebica^* Missiox- 

* These itAtisucs. up ;o ISS j, are t«ken irozxi a title in Mania's Briush Col- 
onies, a work of greai research, the facts of vhich are deriTe'i from o£cial 
sources. The exports for lSo9 to 1S4-3. and l>4o to 154?. are fr^^a the letters 
of Mr. Bigelow. of the N. Y. Erening Post, in Littell's Living Are. l.S5«l Xo. 
30d, p.l2o; -- -1 1S56 to 1S5S are :. /r. Julj 

16, 1S59. 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES. 267 

ART Association, in its report for 1857, gives currency to the 
assertion that " they yield more produce than they ever did dur- 
ing the existence of slavery." Mr. C. Buxton, in the Edinburgh 
Review, April, 1859, insists that — 

Existing facts "show that slavery was bearing our colonies down to 
ruin with awful speed ; that had it lasted but another half ceutui-y, 
they must have sunk beyond recovery. On the other hand, that now, 
under freedom and free trade, they are growing day by day more rich 
and prosperous ; with spreading trade, with improving agriculture, with 
a more educated, industrious, and virtuous people ; while the comfort 
of the quondam slaves is increased beyond the power of words to 
portray. 

" Now all this seems very encouraging; but how such language can 
be used, without its being considered as flatly contradicting well-known 
facts, and what the American Missionary Association, Mr. Bigelow, 
and others, have heretofore said, will seem very mysterious to the 
reader. And yet, the assertions quoted would seem to be proved, by 
taking the aggregate production of the whole British West India 
islands and Mauritius, * as the index to their commercial prosperity. 
But if the islands be taken separately, and all the facts considered, a 
widely different conclusion will be formed, by every candid man, than 
that the improvement is due to the increased industry of the negroes. 
On this subject the facts can be drawn from authorities which would 
scorn to conceal the truth with the design of sustaining a theory of 
the philanthropist. This question is placed in its true light by the 
London Economist, July IG, 1859, in which it is shown that the appar- 
ent industrial advancement of the islands is due to the importation of 
immigrants from India, China, and Africa by the 'coolie traffic,' and 
not to the improved industry of the emancipated negroes. Says the 
Economist : 

" ' We find one of the Emigration Commissioners, Mr. Murdock, f 
in an interesting memorandum on this subject, giving us the following 
comparison between the islands which have been recently supplied 
with immis-rants, and those which have not : 



* Mauritius is not in the AVest Indies, as the maps will show, but in the Indian 
Ocean. 

t The statement was made at a meeting which met to consider the evils of the 
Chinese and coolie system of immigration into the West Indies and Mauritius. 



268 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



ISLANDS. 
Mauritius ... 


Number of Im- 
migrants. 


Sugar, pounds. 
The 3 Years 
BEFORE Immi- 
gration. 


Sugar, pounds. 
The last 3 
Years. 


209,490 
24,946 
11,981 


217,200,256 
178,626,208 
91,110,768 


469,812,784 
250,715,584 
150,579,072 


British Guiana 


Trinidad 





" ' With these are contrasted the results in Jamaica, where there has 
been very little immigration. In the three years after apprenticeship, 
Jamaica produced 202,973,568 pounds of sugar, while in the last three 
years corresponding to the last column of the above table, the pro- 
duction of sugar was only 1.39, .369,776 pounds. ' 

" Here, now, is presented the key to the mystery overhanging the 
British West Indies. Men, high in station, have asserted that West 
India emancipation has been an economic success ; while others, 
equally honorable, have maintained the opposite view. Both have 
presented figures, averred to be true, that seemed to sustain their dec- 
larations. This apparent contradiction is thus explained. The first 
take the aggregate production in the whole of the islands, which, they 
say, exceeds that during the existence of slavery ; * the second take 
the production in Jamaica alone, as representing the whole ; and thus 
the startling fact appears, that the sugar crop of the last three years 
in Jamaica, has fallen 63,603,000 pounds below what it was during the 
first three years of freedom. This argues badly for the free negroes ; 
but it must be the legitimate fruits of emancipation, as no exterior 
force has been brought into that island to interfere, materially, with 
its workings. In Mauritivis, Trinidad, and British Guiana, it will be 
seen that the production has greatly increased ; but from a very difi"er- 
ent cause than any improvement in the industry of the blacks who had 
received their freedom — the increase in Mauritius having been more 
than double what it had been when the production depended upon 
them. The sugar crop, in this island, for the three years preceding 
the introduction of immigrant labor, was but 217,200,000 pounds; 
while, during the last three years, by the aid of 210,000 immigrants, it 
has been run up to 469,812,000 pounds. 

" Taking all these fiicts into consideration, it is apparent that West 
India emancipation has been a failure, economically considered. The 
production in Jamaica, where it has depended upon the labor of the 



* Thcj' must refer to slavery in its later years, after the suppression of the 
slave trade. Previous to that event, the production of Jamaica was more than 
76 per cent, greater than at present. 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES. 269 

free blacks alone, has materially declined since tlie abandonment of 
slavery, and is not so great now as it was during tbc first years of free- 
dom ; and, so far is it from being equal to what it was wbile slavery 
prevailed, and especially while the slave trade was continued, that it 
now falls short of the production of that period by an immense amount. 
In no way, therefore, can it be claimed, that the cultivation of the 
British West India islands is on the increase, except by resorting to 
the pious fraud of crediting the products of the immigrant labor to 
the account of emancipation — a resort to which no conscientious 
Christian man will have recourse, even to sustain a philanthropic 
theory." 

In confirmation of the statements here given, in relation to the 
falling off in the productions of Jamaica, it is only necessary that 
the declaration of the Colonial Minister should be given, as it ap- 
peared in the New York Tribune, and was thence transferred to 
the American Missionary, February, 1859 : 

" The Colonial Minister says : ' Jamaica is now the only important 
sugar-producing colony which exports a considerably smaller quantity 
of sugar than was exported in the time of slavery, while some such 
colonies, since the passage of the emancipation act, have largely in- 
creased their product.' " 

But it is claimed that an exception exists in the island of Bar- 
badoes, the exports of which having been considerably increased 
without the aid of coolie labor. As we shall elsewhere refer to this 
point, it need only be remarked here, that that island is a small 
one — 22 miles in length by 14 in breadth — and has been very 
densely populated for the last hundred years. Its population now 
numbers about 800 to the square mile. ^ When emancipation 
came, the negroes had no waste land, like their brethren in Ja- 
maica, upon which to squat; but had to remain on the plantations, 
as the only means of earning their bread, f 

These investigations need not be prosecuted any further. Men 
of intelligence will no longer claim that any miracle has occurred 
in the British West Indies, to demonstrate the moral duty and eco- 
nomical advantages of emancipation. A people degraded like the 

*" Cotton is King" gives full particulars on this point, 
t London Economist. 



270 PULPIT POLITICS. 

blacks of these islands were when liberated, never have become 
producers, in agriculture, to an extent much beyond the supply of 
their absolute necessities. They have not done it in the United 
States, in Canada, in Mexico, the South American Republics, or 
Hayti, They never will do it as long as the world stands. They 
must be educated before they can rise to the dignity of enlightened 
freemen, capable, from their own voluntary industry, of supplying 
a large surplus of products to commerce. Indeed, the apology 
offered for the abolition of "West India slavery, by prominent 
British writers, is no longer based upon the economical benefits 
resulting from that measure. The downward tendency of the pro- 
ductiveness of the islands, where negro labor alone is employed, 
is fully admitted ; but the advantages of emancipation, it is now 
claimed, exist in the fact that free labor can, at present, be intro- 
duced to an extent equaling the demands of the owners of estates 
— a policy that was impracticable as long as slavery existed. The 
free labor referred to, it is scarcely necessary to add, consists of 
imported coolies ! As long as slavery prevailed, say these writers, 
free labor could not be introduced, because freemen could not labor 
by the side of slaves — the control of the two classes requiring 
widely different systems of management. 

We repeat a previous remark. The domestic exports of a coun- 
try are not always to be taken as a true measure of the personal 
comforts or moral progress of its population. This proposition 
has been claimed as having an illustration in the West Indies. 
While admitting the diminution of exports, it is asserted that the 
comforts of a population are greatly enhanced by the consumption 
of an increased amount of their own productions. On this ques- 
tion, however, some dispute has arisen. As the utmost fairness is 
the author's aim, no other testimony, to any considerable extent, 
than that of anti-slavery men, will be used on this point, nor shall 
even that be extensively paraded. 

Mr. BiGELOW, of the Neiv York Evening Post, spent a winter in 
Jamaica, and became well acquainted with its condition and pros- 
pects. Since his return, he has still watched the progress of 
events in the island with anxious solicitude. In reviewing the 
returns published by the Jamaica House of Assembly, in 1853, in 
reference to the ruinous decline in the agriculture of the island. 



EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION IN WEST INDIES. 271 

and stating the enormous quantity of lands thrown out of cultiva- 
tion, since 1848, the Post said : 

" This decline has been going on from year to year, daily becoming 
more alarming, until at length the island has reached what would ap- 
pear to be the last profound of distress and misery, when 

thousands of people do not know, when they rise in the morning, 
whence or in what manner they are to procure bread for the day." 

The London Times, of about the same date, in speaking of the 
results of emancipation in Jamaica, says : 

"The negro has not acquired, with his freedom,any habits of indus- 
try or morality. His independence is but little better than that of an 
uneaptured brute. Having accepted few of the restraints of civiliza- 
tion, he is amenable to few of its necessities ; and the wants of his 
nature are so easily satisfied, that at the current rate of wages, he is 
called upon for nothing but fitful or desultory exertion. The blacks, 
therefore, instead of becoming intelligent husbandmen, have become 
vagrants and squatters, and it is now apprehended that with the fail- 
ure of cultivation in the island will come the failure of its resources 
for instructing or controlling its population. So imminent does this 
consummation appear, that memorials have been signed by classes of 
colonial society hitherto standing aloof from politics, and not only the 
bench and the bar, but the bishop, clergy, and ministers of all denom- 
inations in the island, without exception, have recorded their convic- 
tion, that, in the absence of timely relief, the religious and educational 
institutions of the island must be abandoned, and the masses of the 
population retrogade to barbarism." 

The remedy for the existing evils, as proposed by prominent 
British writers, is to force the free colored people into habits of 
greater industry by the introduction of coolie labor. The London 
Economist recently said : 

" We have always been warm advocates of the coolie immigration 
into the West Indies. We arc convinced that by no other plan can 
the population of these fertile islands be increased up to the high- 
pressure point at which alone Africans can be induced to labor hard. 
Barbadoes is the only highly successful island among our West India 
colonies, because Barbadoes is so fully peopled that the negroes are 
compelled to work for their subsistence, and to work hard. We can 



272 PULPIT POLITICS. 

not lay too great stress, as Mr. Buxton wisely said, on the duty of 
aiding the overflowing population of China and India to fill up the 
vacuum in our "West India colonies. We know now this can be done 
without inhumanity and with the greatest advantage to both the coolie 
and the English planter. And it is the part of common sense and 
good judgment to do it as effectually as we have already done it in the 
Mauritius, and as speedily as possible."* 

This, then, is the remedy proposed for saving the British island;! 
from the effects of emancipation. The negro will not work volun- 
tarily. The whip must no longer be applied to compel him to do 
so ; but work he must, or British trade and commerce and British 
revenues will suffer. Experience has suggested the remedy. The 
negroes of Barbadoes " work hard," because where 800 men have 
to gain a subsistence from the space of 640 acres of land, they 
must work in earnest or starve ; and they must labor, too, accord- 
ing to some efficient system, devised by intelligence, or, even then, 
a subsistence can not be gained from the soil. The proposition 
is, that the other islands shall be rendered productive, as Barba- 
does was during the prevalence of the slave trade, by crowding 
them with laborers. It is proposed that they, too, shall be over- 
populated, so as to keep the inhabitants constantly at the starva- 
tion point; and thus instead of prompting them to action, as under 
slavery, by the " beneficent whip," to force them into industry, as 
freemen, by the philanthropic application of hunger ! 

Such are the measures deemed necessary, by British writers, to 
remedy the evils growing out of the benevolence of Great Britain 
toward the African race ! She resolved that the negroes should 
no longer be coerced into industrious habits, and now she is com- 
pelled to starve them to it, otherwise her own people at home 
must be brought to suffering for want of the productions which 
they can supply. 

The injurious effects of African emancipation, upon the national 
prosperity of the Caucasians, can now be comprehended. 

♦London Economist, 1861. 



CHAPTER V. 

WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION A TOTAL FAILURE IN ITS EXPECTED 
RESULTS. 

Section I. — General Condition of the British West India 
Islands at this Moment. 

Since the completion of the foregoing chapters, the work of 
William G. Sewell, Esq., — " The Ordeal of Free Labor in the 
West Indies/' — has been laid before us.-'' There had long been 
much of mystery overhanging the free labor systems of the British 
West Indies. Mr. Sewell has turned aside the vail more fully 
than any other writer consulted, and has given the public a can- 
did statement of facts which came under his own observation. 
But he looks at everything from the " free soil " and " free 
labor " point of view ; so that, though he finds ruin overwhelm- 
ing the planters, and many grievous evils existing among the 
blacks, he yet claims that they are not the results of emancipa- 
tion, or if they are, that even death is preferable to slavery. 

Beginning with Barbadoes, he says : " It must be borne in 
mind, that, protected by her small area, and dense population — 
a population larger to the square mile than that of China — Bar- 
badoes, since emancipation, has not suflFered for the want of labor 
like other colonies. To this cause more, perhaps, than to any 
other, she owes her present wonderful prosperity."f 

In another paragraph, the author explains the mode by which 
the planters secure the labor of the free negroes : 

"At the time of emancipation tlie slaves were left in possession of 
their houses and allotment lands, Vrhich they continued to occupy after 

* Mr. Sewell traveled in the West Indies as correspondent for the New York 
Times. t Sewell, page 31. 

18 (273) 



274 PULPIT POLITICS. 

their term of apprenticeship had expired. In Barbadoes the tenant 
\yorkcd for the hmdlord at twenty per cent, below the common market 
rate, and his service was taken as an equivalent for rent. But the 
practice produced endless difficulties and disagreements ; the law did 
not bear out the planter, and another system was introduced. Under 
the new practice, still in force, a laborer has a house and land allot- 
ment on an estate for which he pays a stipulated rent; but he is under 
an engagement besides, as a condition of renting, to give to the estate 
a certain number of days' labor, at certain stipulated wages, varying 
from one-sixth to one-third less than the market price. The rate of 
wages for field labor, in Barbadoes, is about twenty-four cents per day ; 
but the laborer, fettered by the system of tenancy-at-will, is compelled 
to work for his landlord at twenty cents per day. He is, therefo7-er vir- 
tiialli/ a slave ; for if he resists the conditions of his bond, he is ejected by 
summary process, and loses the profit he hoped to reap on his little stock."* 

But "why should freemen submit to such exactions ? The reason 
is explained in a subsequent paragraph : 

" I must again repeat that Barbadoes ofiers a solitary exception to 
the general argument. The population here, as I have said, is extremely 
dense, averaging eight hundred persons to the square mile, and partly 
from an aversion of the negro to leave his home, partly from his fear, 
still easily excited, of being sold into slavery, no material emigration 
from the island has ever taken place. In Barbadoes, therefore, labor 
has been always abundant, and the island, which out of 106,000 acres 
has 100,000 under cultivation, presents the appearance of a perfect 
garden. Land, as I shall hereafter show, averages $500 an acre ; and 
when it is added that the land which brings such a price is purchased 
for agricultural purposes only, we have, in the fact, conclusive evidence 
of most remarkable prosperity. All this, practically considered, is 
owing, in a greater degree, to an adequate laboring population, than to 
the special benefits of abolition, as illustrated in an anti-slavery society's 
annual report. But no credit is due to the Barbadian plantocracy for 
retaining that adequate laboring population in their employ. To the 
latter it was the option of loorh at low wages, and on most illiberal 
terms, or starvation.^ 'f 

Again, on this point, Mr. Sewcll says : " Barbadoes is so thickly 
inhabited that work or starvation is the only choice.":|: And •iga.in, 

* Sewcll, page 31. t Ibid., page 33. J Ibid., page 106. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 275 

in contrasting the free negroes of Jamaica with those of Barba- 
does, he says : " I do maintain, without any hesitation, that the 
Creole of Jamaica works as diligently as the Creole of Barbadoes ; 
but with this difference — that the former works for himself, while 
the latter works only for a master — that the work of the one is 
more profitable because it is well-directed and economized, while 
the work of the other is less profitable because it is ill-directed 
and wasted."* 

From these statements, there is no escaping the conclusion, 
that emancipation, while giving a nominal freedom to the blacks, 
has really left the population almost as much in the power of the 
planter as it was under slavery. And, yet, after saying all that 
has been quoted, when, in another place, the author comes to 
compare Cuba, Jamaica, and Barbadoes, he says : 

" Barbadoes offers the most perfect example of free labor, and of the 
capacity and willingness of the African to work under a free system. "f 
. . . . "Now Barbadoes is a living proof that the negroes do work 
under a free system. "| ..." The doctrine of emancipation, that 
free labor is cheaper than slave labor, is proved to demonstration. "§ 

Antigua, with 70,000 acres of land, of which 58,000 acres are 
owned by large proprietors, was found by emancipation in a sim- 
ilar position, as regards density of population, with Barbadoes. 
The planters in Antigua dictate the terms of labor, like those of 
Barbadoes, and pay even less wages than those of the former 
island. " In Antigua, a field laborer scarcely earns, on an aver- 
age, twenty cents per diem ; in Barbadoes, he earns from twenty- 
two to twenty-five cents ; and in Trinidad, he earns thirty cents."] | 

The present population of Barbadoes is estimated at 140,000.^ 
Sugar is the principal production. Its exports, for a series of 
years, are given thus :** 

1720 to 1800, annual average 23,000 hhds. 

1800 to 1830, " " 20,000 " 

1835 to 1850, " " 26,000 " 

1851 to 1858, " " 43,000 " 

* Sewell, page 273. t Ibid., p. 272. J Ibid., p. 273. 

§ Ibid., p. 273. il Ibid., page 146. ^ Ibid., p. 60. 

** Ibid., pp. 62-3. Note.— ¥rom 1826 to 1830, the average weight of a hogshead 
■wasl2cwt.: from 1830 to 1850, 14:CWt.; and is now from 15 to 16, and even 17 cwt. 



276 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



In 1858, alone, tlie exports were 50,778 hhcls., being the larg- 
est crop ever produced in the island, and more than twice as 
much as the annual average exports from 1800 to 1830, during 
most of which time the slave trade was forbidden and hence, no 
supply of labor obtained from that source. From 1720 to 1808, 
the slave trade prevailed, and the exports, consequently, were 
larger. This was the result in all the islands — a diminution of 
production following the suppression of the slave trade. In Bar- 
badoes and Antigua, alone, has any increased production, to any 
considerable extent, followed emancipation. In these islands 
only, the overcrowded state of the population leaves the labor- 
ers under the necessity of submitting to starvation or engaging 
in work for the planters. For this reason these two islands are 
naturally grouped together in these investigations. Barbadoes 
being the larger island, and its crowded condition having en- 
abled it to export more sugar under freedom than under slavery, 
it has been cited as a triumphant proof that free labor is more 
productive than slave labor ; and many, without examination, 
have accepted the fact as the grandest truth of the nineteenth 
century. 

But let us see what will become of this boasting about the 
superiority of free labor, by contrasting its productiveness with 
that of the slave labor in the United States. The exports of 
Barbadoes, given above, begin with 1720 and end with 1858. 
Sugar is the principal article of growth in Barbadoes, and cot- 
ton in the United States. The home consumption of each may 
be left out of view, and the exports alone given in contrast. 
Cotton, however, was not an article of regular export until 1791. 

We must commence, therefore, with tliat date, and take it at 
regular intervals of ten years to the present date — except as to 
additions of a year or two as explanatory. The amounts are 
given in pounds : 



YEAR. 

1791 


189,316 


YEAR. 

1840 

1849 


743,941,061 

1,026,602,269 




17,789,803 




93,900,000 


1850 


« 635,381,604 


1820 

1830 


127,800,000 

sas^fta.ios 


1859 ... . 


1,372,755,006 


1860 


1,767,686,339 







* The crop of 1850 was a short one. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. Zli 

The contrast between the rate of increase here and in the sugar 
statistics of Barbadoes, must put an end to all boasting. Here 
the reader sees what can be done by a slave population, well fed, 
well housed, and with proper medical attendance. The slave 
trade furnishes no aid here, nor has Coolie labor lent a hand, and 
yet the increase is enormous. It will not do any longer to 
attempt to impose upon an intelligent public the oft-repeated 
tale — as applicable to the negro race — that free labor is more 
productive than slave labor. The negro question can not at ' 
present be argued on that principle ; and it never should have 
been placed upon that ground. 

From the industrial we turn to the moral condition of the 
island. On this subject, Mr. Sewell presents a horrible picture 
of degradation : 

" I can not speak as highly of the morality of the laboring popula- 
tion of Barbadoes as I can of their industry. The clergy may publish 
church and school statistics, which, I admit, go to show that scholars 
and churchmen multiply. But statistics on such subjects are not of 
much importance when they run counter to common every-day expe- 
rience. To prove that the vicious put on a religious demeanor with 
their Sunday coat, and will listen patiently to a tedious, incomprehen- 
sible sermon, only makes the case worse. It is shown that since eman- 
cipation the higher crimes are less frequently committed than they were 
before. Crimes of violence are almost unknown, and in the streets, 
thanks to efficient police regulations, the most perfect order is preserved ; 
but crimes of calculation, thieving, swindling, and the minor vices, have 
apparently increased. I speak from prison statistics ; and it must be 
borne in mind that over a large number, if not all, of these offenses the 
planter formerly had exclusive jurisdiction, and they were never known 
beyond the precincts of his own estate. It is, therefore, unfair to make 
any deductions from the criminal records of the present day, and com- 
pare them with those of the past, when no just comparison can be insti- 
tuted. But I have seen exhibitions of unrestrained passion, of cruelty, 
and of vice, to which, in a state of slavery, the negro would never be 
permitted to give vent. I have seen parents beat their children in such 
an inhuman manner as to make me feel that liberty to them was a curse 
to all over whom they were allowed to exercise any authority or control. 
I am speaking now of what is the rule rather than the exception among 



278 PULPIT POLITICS. 

tlie lowest class of the negro population. Among their other vices, 
immorality and promiscuous intercourse of the sexes are almost univer- 
sal. From the last census, it appears that more than half of the child- 
ren born in Barbadoes are illegitimate.^ 

"Against the middle class — as a class — the imputation of unfaith- 
fulness to the marriage vow could not be maintained ; but among the 
laboring people, morality, not now through ignorance and compulsion, 
but from choice, remains at the lowest ebb. I leave the reader to draw 
what inference he pleases from such a state of things. I simply report 
facts. But it seems to me that the moral grounds of the abolitionist 
for removing the restrictions of slavery, are, in Barbadoes, at least, the 
very worst that could be selected. Morality has not kept pace with 
material progress. Making every allowance for the influence of cli- 
mate, there is still no palliation for such a superabundance of vice."f 

On the subject of education, it is remarked : " Education in Barba- 
does is confined to those who have the means to pay for the luxury of 
knowledge ; and though statistics show a marked progress since the 
date of emancipation, it is rather the progress of a class than of the 
whole population But all the schools are under church influ- 
ence, and are necessarily imbued with church prejudices ; and were 
education on such a system much more extended than it really is, one 
would scarcely look for any wholesome difiiisiou of popular instruc 
tion." J 

In relation to social customs, it is said: "The distinctions of caste 
are more strictly observed in Barbadoes than in any other British West 
India colony. No person, male or female, with the slightest taint of 
African blood, is admitted to white society. No matter what the stand- 
ing of a father, his influence can not secure for his colored ofi"spring 
the social status that he himself occupies; and the rule is more rigidly 
carried out among women than it is among men. The amalgamation 
of the two races is, nevertheless, very general, and illicit intercourse is 
sanctioned, or at least winked at, by a society which utterly condemns and 

abhors a marriage between two people of different colors The 

amalgamation of the African and Anglo-Saxon, and the exclusiveness 
of the latter, have thus combined to build up the half-castes, and make 
them somewhat of a distinct people — a people neither African nor 
European, but more properly West Indian. This class — the middle 

* Sewell, p. 41. t 1-^d., p. 42. j Ibi;!., 42. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 279 

class — is already very large and intelligent, and is rapidly increasing. 
It is composed of small landed proprietors, of business men, clerks in 
public and private establishments, editors, tradesmen, and mechanics."* 

In addition to the exports of sugar from Barbadoes and Anti- 
gua, it is claimed that many minor productions are now exported 
which were not cultivated during slavery; and that, therefore, 
the foreign goods consumed in the islands is a better index to the 
actual prosperity and comfort of the population. Judged by this 
rule, the following results are presented : " Turning now to the 
imports of Barbadoes, I find that their average annual value, 
from 1822 to 1832, was about £600,000 sterling. In 1845, the 
imports amounted in value to £682,358 sterling ; and in 1856, to 
£840,000, of which about £640,000 were consumed in the 
islands."! 

As no intimation is given of any re-exports having been made 
in 1822 to 1832, of the foreign imported articles, we are at a loss 
to know whether the whole of the importations of that date were 
consumed in the islands ; if so, then the present consumption 
is an increase of only £40,000 on that of the former period. 

In Antigua, from 1822 to 1832, the average annual value of 
imports was £130,000 sterling; and in 1858, £266,364 — being 
more than double its former imports. | 

The educational progress of Antigua has been more favorable 
than in Barbadoes. "It further appears that education has raised 
the standard of morality in Antigua. Marriages are much more 
frequent than they used to be, and concubinage is discounten- 
anced. The number of illegitimate births averages 53 per cent. 
In some other islands, it exceeds 100 per cent." § 

The middle and lower classes, in Antigua, are entirely excluded 
from the polls by a high property qualification, thus leaving all 
legislation exclusively in the hands of the whites. || The popu- 
lation of this island equals three hundred and eighteen to the 
square mile.^ The black population, for twenty years past, has 
diminished at the rate of a half per cent, per annum, although 

* Sewell, p. 68. t Ibid., p. 63. t Ibid., p. 145. 

? Sewell, p. 143. || Ibid., p. 150. ^ Ibid., p. 152. 



280 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the island is remarkably healthy. The mortality is greater now 
than in the days of slavery ; and the mortality is less on estates, 
at present, than it is in the villages where the laborers reside on 
their own lands,* In Barbadoes, the census returns are not very 
satisfactory, but no material increase has taken place there since 
emancipation ;t so, then, it would appear, that a decrease of 
population is the law of freedom in the West Indies — the other 
islands, mainly, as it will be seen, having also suffered a dimin- 
ution of population. This result, we are told, has arisen from 
the fact, that " the life of a field laborer has been made so dis- 
tasteful to the peasant that the possession of half an acre, or the 
most meager subsistence and independence, seem to him, in com- 
parison with estate service, the very acme of luxurious enjoy- 
ment."! 

One fact must be noted here. The plantation labor required 
of these blacks is, with a slight difference in Avages, exactly what 
the Coolie, in other islands, accepts as a munificent inheritance ; 
and what Mr, Sewell, as we shall see, considers one of the most 
beneficent schemes for the civilization of the Pagans of the East 
Indies who may be transferred to the West Indies. 

From all the facts before us, we must conclude, that emanci- 
pation, in Barbadoes and Antigua, has utterly failed in producing 
the favorable results anticipated from that measure by the Eng- 
lish philanthropists. They never conceived it possible that, 
under the freedom they were conferring, the black population 
of these islands would be forced to labor for the planters or 
starve, and that their condition, instead of being improved, would 
be virtually that of slaves. Much less did they look to emanci- 
pation as resulting in a decrease of population, threatening the 
ultimate extinction of the African race in the islands, and creat- 
ing a demand for the transfer of other laborers from abroad, to 
prevent the estates from being rendered useless. Nothing at 
all of this was anticipated, as will be evident by a perusal of the 
book of the good Mr, Gurney, describing what he saw in the 
West India Islands soon after emancipation. With the light of 
time cast in full blaze upon the British scheme of abolition, no 

«• Sewell, pp, 154, 156. t Ibid., pp. 60, 61, J Ibid., p. 154 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 281 

one can now read the book of Mr. Gurney without marveling 
how one so good could be so credulous. 

But we must pass on to the other islands, and see how far they 
meet, or fail in meeting, British expectation, as to the results 
of emancipation. And first, of the smaller British West India 
Islands. In noticing this class of islands, the references will 
be limited to the points of importance in the investigation on 
hand. 

St. Vincent and her Grenadine dependencies, which, before 
emancipation, exported, on an average, 25,000,000 lbs. sugar, 
now export only 16,000,000 or 17,000,000 lbs.* The population 
of St. Vincent, in 1831, amounted to 27,000, and now stands at 
•30,000.f This estimate is for 1859, so that, in twenty-eight years, 
rhere has been an increase of population amounting to only 3,000, 
or a little over one hundred per annum ; whereas, if the increase 
had been equal to that of the slaves in the United States, it 
would have been more than seven hundred a year, and the popu- 
lation now have been doubled. " There are now encouraging 
prospects that, even in the cultivation of sugar, St. Vincent will 
soon be restored to its former prosperity. The island has already 
made preparations for the importation of Coolie labor."J The 
cultivation and export of minor products has increased ; but the 
imports of foreign products, as indicating increasing comforts in 
living, are not given. "Out of a population of 80,000, there is 
an average church-attendance of 8,000. There is little provision 
for educational purposes, and no effort was made to enlighten 
the people until 1857, when the legislature established a board 
of education. In that year, the school-attendance was about 
2,000."§ 

Grenada, which exported 22,000,000 lbs. of sugar before eman- 
cipation, now exports something less than half that amount. || The 
decline, in Grenada, commenced as far back as 1776. " The total 
population of Grenada is now about 33,000, an increase of three 
or four thousand over the population of 1827."^ " Grenada has 
taken the lead of St. Vincent in the importation of Coolie la- 

* Sewell, p. 75. t Ibid., p. 79. { Ibid., p. 82. 

§ Sewell, p. 81. || Ibid., p. 75. ^ Ibid., p. 86. 



282 PULPIT POLITICS. 

borers."* In 1857, the imports amounted to £109,000,1 against 
£78,000, £73,000, and £77,000, during the years immediately 
preceding emancipation. :j: " The average church-attendance 
throughout the island was, in 1857, over 8,000, against 7,000 
before emancipation ; but the school-attendance is comparatively 
small, being only 1,600. Education, among the Creoles of Gren- 
ada, has been, up to this time, at a very low ebb, for it has been 
looked upon with jealousy and distrust."§ . . . . - 

Tobago, in 1819, had 15,470 registered slaves ^ in 1832, there 
were but 12,091, while the number, including non-effectives, for 
whom compensation was claimed by Tobago proprietors, was only 
10,500. The present estimated population is 15,674, of which 
one hundred and sixty are whites. The production of sugar, in 
this island, is now from three to four thousand hogsheads, against 
seven thousand some twenty -five years ago.|| The average 
church- attendance, in Tobago, is large, being forty- one per cent, 
of the entire population. There is an average school-attendance 
of 1,600.^1 

St. Lucia, in 1816, had 16,285 registered slaves, and in 1836, 
the number was reduced to 13,291. The population is now 25,- 
307, of whom nine hundred and fifty-eight are whites. The sugar 
exports of St. Lucia, in 1857, amounted to 6,261,875 lbs. against 
an average yearly export of from three to five millions before 
emancipation. The 3Ietairee system prevails in this island, and 
is productive of favorable results — the profits of the production 
being divided Avith the laborer, and tenancy-at-Avill being dis- 
pensed with.** 

Dominica, prior to emancipation, had a population of 18,650, 
and in 1844, the last census, it had 22,220 — there being included 
in the number eight hundred and fifty whites. In 1858, this isl- 
and exported 6,262,841 lbs. sugar, against an annual average of 
6,000,000 lbs. before emancipation. The total imports, in 1858, 
were valued at £84,906, against an average of £62,000 for five 



* Sewcll, p. 89. 

t Mr. Sewell's book lias it marked S, which must be an error. 

t Sewell, p. 89. i Ibid., p. 87. |1 Ibid., p. 90. 

t Ibid., p. 91. »*• Ibid., pp. 92, 93. 



ECONOMICAL FAILUKE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 28-3 

years preceding emancipation. About 2,600 children, on an 
average, receive instruction in the different schools.* 

Nevis, in 1830, had a population of 9,250, and has now 9,570. 
In 1858, this island exported 4,400,000 lbs. of sugar, against an 
annual average of 5,000,000 lbs. before emancipation. More than 
two-thirds of the population, between the ages of five and fifteen, 
are receiving instruction.f 

MoNTSEKRAT, at present, has a population of 7,033, being a 
decrease of some 300 on the population of 1828. The exports 
of sugar from this island, in 1858, were 1,308,720 lbs., against 
an annual average of 1,840,000 lbs. prior to emancipation. 
" The value of imports, in 1858, was £17,844 ; and between this 
figure and the average value of imports before emancipation, 
there appears to be no marked variance." | 

St. Kitts, according to the census of 1858, has a population 
of 20,741 ; and seems to have decreased nearly 3,000 since 1830. 
In 1858, this island exported 9,853,309 lbs. of sugar, against an 
annual average of 12,000,000 lbs. before emancipation. There 
are 2,704 scholars receiving instruction in the schools. § 

The British Virgin Islands have a population of 5,053 per- 
sons ; but the statistics of their former numbers are not given. 
Most of them are rocky islets, unsuited to cultivation. Tortola 
is their capital. The islands annually export stock, sheep and 
goats, lime, charcoal, salt, vegetables, some five or six thousand 
pounds of cotton, and about two hundred thousand pounds of 
sugar. The vessels that visit these islands are of inferior ton- 
nage, and their principal trade is with St. Thomas. 

The foregoing statements include the number of the popula- 
tion, the amount of exports, and the amount of imports, as far 
as given, for the several islands named, together with the church 
and school-attendance, wherever it is given by Mr. Sewell. The 
following tabular statement of the exports and the population of 
the several islands, before and after emancipation, places the 
figures in contrast, and affords a true idea of the facts. The 
highest estimates of Mr. Sewell are taken, and the islands only 
included which are complete in their statistics : 

* 8ewell, p. IGl. t Ibid., p. 162. ; Ibid., pp. 162, 163. g Ibid., p. 163. 



284 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



ISLANDS. 


exp'ts before 
emancipation. 


PRESENT 
EXPOflTS. 


POPULATION 
BEFOEE EMANC. 


PRESENT 
POPULATION. 


St, Vincents, etc lbs. 

Grenada lbs. 


25,000,000 
22,000,000 
6,000,000 
6.000,000 
5,000,000 
1,840,000 
12,000,000 


17,000,000 
11,000,000 

6,261, sr.'i 

6,262,841 
4,400,000 
1,308,720 
9,883,309 


27,000 

29,000 


30,000 

33,000 


Dominica lbs. 

Nevis lbs. 

Montserrat lbs. 

St. Kitts lbs. 


18,650 
9,260 
7,333 

23,700 


22,220 
9,570 
7,033 

20,741 


76,840,000 


66,116,745 


114,933 


122,564 



Another point needs examination here. The increased con- 
sumption of foreign imported goods is given by Mr. Sewell, as 
indicating, in dollars and cents, the increased comfort of the free 
population at present, as compared with the deprivation to which, 
while in slavery, it was subjected. The islands only are given 
for which the statistics are complete. The recent imports are 
for 1857 and 1858 : 



ISLANDS. 


IMPORTS 
BEFORE 
EMANCIP. 


populat'n 

BEFORE 
EMANCIP. 


IMPORTED 
COMFORTS 
PER HEAD, 


IMPORTS 

AT 
PRESENT. 


POPULA- 
TION AT 
PRESENT. 


IMPORTED 
COMFORTS 
PER HEAD. 


Grenada, average 3 yrs... 
Dominica, " 5 " ... 
Nevis, " 10 " ... 
Montserrat... 


$380,000 
300,000 
142,500 
89,220 


29,000 

18,660 
9,250 
10,000 


$13.10 

16.08 
15.40 
8 92 


.?545,000 

422,630 

183,605 

89,220 


33,000 

22,220 
9,570 
7 033 


$16.51 
19.01 

19.06 
12.68 











Here, now, are the facts. The foreign imports into these 
islands, immediately preceding emancipation — that is, during 
the last years of slavery — equaled in value an average of $13.37 
per head, for the whole population, white and black; now, under 
freedom and free labor, the imports have risen to $16.81 — being 
an increase of barely $3.44 per head. That is to say, emancipa- 
tion has brought to each individual, providing an equal division 
be made, the means of increasing his comforts yearly, beyond 
what he enjoyed under slavery, to the extent of less than three 
and a half dollars ! 

But, even this, small as it is, would be very encouraging as a 
beginning, were it not for certain other existing facts. By refer- 
ring to the table of figures immediately preceding the last one, it 
will be seen that there has been a decrease in the population of 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 285 

two of them, and a very small increase in a third, while the other 
three have fallen very far short of the ordinary rate of increase 
in populations comfortably fed and housed. Taking this tendency 
to decrease in the black population, and their probable consequent 
extinction in the future, into account, and adding thereto the 
wretchedly meager increase of their means of procuring comforts 
under freedom, it is impossible to come to the conclusion that 
emancipation, in these smaller islands, has been a success at all 
approximating what was expected by the British people. 

Mr. Sewell, however, comes to a different conclusion, viewing 
the matter from his stand-point; and to this theory of his we 
shall refer again. In the meantime, we shall proceed to another 
of the British islands. 

Trinidad, says Mr, Sewell, 

" Has been surnamed the Indian Paradise, and as far as external 
beauty may entitle it to pre-eminence, it is magnificently pre-eminent 
in this Western Archipelago. In point of size — containing over 2,000 
square miles — Trinidad is the largest British West India island after 
Jamaica ; and, in positional importance, from its proximity to the 

Venezuelan coast, it is only second to Cuba The whole 

island, in its physical character, is one of the most beautiful that it 

is possible to imagine With only a present population of 

70,000 or 80,000 souls, Trinidad can sustain a million.* Its soil is 
of exceeding richness, and of the million and a quarter acres which 
cover its surface, twenty-nine thirtieths are fit for cultivation. Its 
resources are immense. Every product of the tropics, and many fruits 
and vegetables of the temperate regions, can be grown here ; and a 
laboring population is only wanted to develop the wealth that lies hid- 
den in forests tenanted still by some scattered representatives of the 
ancient Carib. The island, as I shall hereafter show, is fast receiving 
that laboring population ; and, since the immigration of Indian coolies 
commenced, it has sprung from a condition of hopeless lethargy into 
one of activity and life — an example and a guide to the other colonies. 
Within the last few years, the extension of sugar cultivation has been 
very great, and the improvement still goes on."f 

It seems, then, that Trinidad, notwithstanding its great natural 



Some estimates place the population at 100,000. t Sewell, p. 101. 



286 PULPIT POLITICS. 

advantages, had sunk into a condition of " hopeless lethargy," 
under emancipation, and that it was only aroused into "activity 
and life "' by the introduction of coolie labor. But Mr. Sevrell 
must be allowed to describe its condition more fully : 

" Cotton, cofifee, and tobacco can all be cultivated in Trinidad ; but 
the first two could not, by any possibility, be made as profitable to the 
planter as sugar, and the cultivation of the last is not encouraged."* 
'' There have been imported into the colony, during the last thirteen 
years, about 18,000 Eastern laborers — principally coolies — a popula- 
tion which is fast giving to the island its only want, a laboring class, f 
. . . . Trinidad, even under slavery, never had anything like an 
adequate laboring population. Barbadoes is so thickly inhabited that 
work or starvation is the laborer's only choice. In Trinidad, land is 
exceedingly rich, plentiful, and cheap, while labor is scarce and extrav- 
agantly high ; X in Barbadoes, land is dear, and labor is comparatively 
cheap. So that it is impossible to make the case of Barbadoes appli- 
cable, in any one particular, to Trinidad, or vice versa. The only sim- 
ilarity between the two islands is, that sugar forms the staple produc- 
tion of both ; and that both have been successful, though from very 
different causes, under a ffee-labor system." 

That is to say, Barbadoes secures to itself a plentiful supply 
of labor, by making work or starvation the laborer's only choice ; 
Trinidad secures to itself an increase of labor, not from the free 
negroes of the island, but by the importation of coolies. 

The island of Trinidad was originally settled by the Spanish, 
and came into the possession of the English, by conquest, in 1797. 

"The majority of the people of Trinidad are negroes and half-castes. 
They include Creoles of this and other islands, brought here in the days 
of slavery and since ; native Africans imported as free laborers from 
Sierra Leone; Africans taken from captured slavers; and a few hund- 
red liberated slaves, who emigrated to this island, about sixteen years 
ago, from the United States. Many of these people are nearly, and 
some are perfectly white, and the census, probably from the fear of 
giving offense, does not classify the population according to color. For 
convenience sake, I shall speak of all the colored inhabitants of the 



' Sewell, p. 101 t Ibid. 106. J The wages are 30 cents per day. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 287 

island as Creoles of African descent. Tiieir number, according to the 
best information I can obtain, is in the neighborhood of 50,000. On 
looking back to the period immediately preceding emancipation, we 
find the total number of slaves to have been 21,000, and the free col- 
ored about 16,000. Of the former class not more than 11,000 were 
field laborers. To-day, the number of Trinidadian Creoles, attached 
to sugar and cacao estates, is not more than 5,000."* 

To remedy this defect in labor, and extricate themselves from 
their difficulties, the planters encouraged inter-colonial immigra- 
tion, by giving bounties for every laborer brought by captains 
of vessels to Trinidad. Immigrants were also obtained from the 
United States and Africa. The total importation of negroes, 
(including Creoles from other islands,) Africans, and Americans, 
amounts to 20,000; and if they could have been retained, says 
Mr. Sewell, " they, with the Creole laborers of Trinidad, would 
have sufficed at least for immediate want. But many of them 
returned home ; others bought land for themselves, or engaged 
in trade, or as domestics ; and the remnant of this immigration, 
and of the native Trinidad laboring force, now working on the 
sugar and cacao properties, does not exceed 13,000 estate and 
day laborers."! 

Here we get some light to explain the causes operating to 
produce an increase of exports from Trinidad. Under slavery, 
there Avere not more than 11,000 slaves employed as field laborers. 
The coolies imported, during the last thirteen years, amount to 
18,000. Add these to the 13,000 Trinidad laboring forces of all 
classes, and it gives 31,000 at present, against 11,000 previous 
to emancipation — an increased laboring force of nearly two- 
thirds ! 

With all this additional labor, the results are as follows : " Sta- 
tistics show conclusively that the increase is principally, if not 
wholly, due to the importation of foreign labor, for it is only 
since the importation was commenced in earnest that the im- 
provement is to be noticed.":}: The exports, before and after the 
introduction of coolies, stood thus, as given by Mr. Sewell : 

* Sewell, pp. 107, 108. t Ibid., pp. 117, 118, 119. t Ibid., p. 138. 



288 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



BEFORE IMMIGRATION. , , , 

TEARS. hnds. 

1842 20,506 

1843 24,088 

1844 21,800 

1845 25,399 



AFTER IMMIGRATIOX. , . , 

TEARS. hnds. 

1854 27,987 

J 855 31,693 

1856 34,411 

1857 35,623 

1858 37,000 



" The highest average exportation before emancipation, during the 
same number of years, was 25,000 hbds. of very inferior weight, not 
equal to 20,000 hhds. of the present day."* 

The island, it must be remembered, only came into the pos- 
session of England eleven years before the prohibition of the 
slave trade. In 1783, fourteen years previous to its capture by 
Great Britain, it had a population of only 2,763, of whom 2,032 
were Indians. In 1793, the population had increased to 17,718, 
of whom 10,009 were slaves.f Trinidad, unlike the other British 
West Indian islands, had not a sufficient slave-labor force to give 
any great productiveness to the island before 1808, when the 
prohibition of the slave trade prevented any further supply. 
This will account for the inferiority of the exports of the island 
under slavery, as compared with the other islands. 

The necessity for continuous labor, in Trinidad, is thus ac- 
counted for by Mr. Sewell : 

"Perhaps in no island was impending ruin, consequent upon eman- 
cipation, so glaring, so palpable, so apparently certain, as it was in 
Trinidad after the liberation of the slaves. Unlike otlier Carribean 
Islands, the seasons in Trinidad are purely tropical, divided into rainy 
and dry. The latter only lasts five months, and if the planter has not 
completed his crop operations by the 1st of June, his loss is certain 
and irremediable. For this reason, steady labor in Trinidad, during 
crop season, was and is of paramount importance, and the planters had 
every reason to be alarmed that, in this island, above all others, the 
effect of emancipation would be to deprive them of that continuous 
labor with which they were so scantily supplied. . . . The labor- 
ers, as soon as they were free, asked, and for a time received, higher 
wages than the planters, incumbered as their property was by debt, 



♦ Sowell, pp. 138, 139. 



t Ibid., p. 105. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 289 

could afford to pay ; and when this rate of wages was subsequently 
reduced, the majority of the emancipated deserted the estates to better 

their condition, and to seek a more independent livelihood 

Instead of endeavoring to promote a good understanding between them- 
selves and their laborers, the planters adopted, and still retain, in Trin- 
idad, the odious system of tenancy-at-will. The laborer who lives on 
an estate is compelled to work for that estate, and no other, on peril 
of summary ejection, with consequent loss of the crop which he has 
raised on his little allotment. lie is still in a position o{ virtual slav- 
ery, and it is a matter which can excite no surprise that, after eman- 
cipation, those who had the means to purchase parcels of ground, should 
have preferred to leave the estates.* . . . They accordingly did 
leave the estates; and, in a few years after abolition, the majority of 
the entire laboring force — itself always inadequate to the wants of the 
large and rapidly developing colony — vv'cre lost to the proprietary. 
Several estates, for want of necessary labor, were deserted, and, at one 
time, it seemed probable that sugar cultivation, in Trinidad, would be 
altogether abandoned.""}" 

About 4,000 of the liberated Creoles remained on the cacao 
estates, but very few of them on the sugar plantations. The 
7,000 who left the estates, Mr. Sewell believes, have very mate- 
rially improved their condition — five-sixths of them having be- 
come proprietors of from one to ten acres, which they now own, 
and which they grow in provisions for themselves and families. 
To supply their other wants, they give casual labor to the estates, 
especially in crop time.| Those who forsook the field for trade, 
Mr. S. says, by joining themselves to the free Creoles of the 
island, have formed an extensive class engaged in mercantile 
and mechanical pursuits — from keeping a store down to selling 
a sixpence worth of mangoes in the streets — and, by bringing up 
their children to these callings, have given an excess of traders 
and mechanics to the island. In several instances, great suc- 
cess has attended their efforts at moncy-making.§ 

Throughout all his remarks, Mr. Sewell is disposed to apolo- 

* In another place, where a fuller statement is made, Mr. Sewell says that 
a portion of the liberated slaves squatted on the public lands belonging to the 
crown. 

tSewell, p. 110. t Ibid-, P- 111- § Ibid., p. 113. 

19 



290 PULPIT POLITICS. 

gize for the free negro, and to defend him from the charge of 
indolence — attributing the ruin of the island to the mismanage- 
ment of the planters, and not to emancipation. Here, however, 
he makes a statement, explanatory, which relieves the planter 
from the charge of being a hard task-master : " It is true that 
the Trinidad planter exacts no rent from the laborer on his 
estate, and supplies him with medical attendance ; but the la- 
borer, in return, is compelled to work for the estate alone, and 
for five cents a day less than the current rate of wages. It may 
be urged, with truth, that house-rent and medical attendance are 
worth more than five cents a day; but for these privileges the 
laborer is required to give up his independence, and I do not 
think it natural that even the negro should, of his own free 
choice, prefer the exchange."'* 

The industrious and intelligent laborer never imagines he has 
lost his independence because his employer requires the fulfill- 
ment of his contracts. It is only the indolent who are restless 
under voluntary engagements, and are disposed to break away 
from regular industry to lead lives of desultory labor, for the 
sake of independence. Judged by this rule, the negroes can not 
take the first rank as laborers. 

But, with their emancipation — with their release from the 
shackles of slavery — with the liberty of going hither and thither 
at will — with the enjoyment of the most unbounded freedom — 
have the Trinidad negroes made any moral progress ? This is, 
after all, the great question, and the one by which all human 
measures must be tried. Liberty is of no value, if it secures not 
the moral elevation of those upon whom it is conferred. On this 
subject, Mr. Sewell says : 

" The moral condition of the people whom I have thus briefly en- 
deavored to trace from the time of slavery down to the present day, has 
not kept pace with their material prosperity ; and all I have said of Bar- 
badians, in a former chapter, under this particular head, may, with still 
greater force, be applied to Trinidadians. The amalgamation of the 
European and African races is even more general in Trinidad than in 

* Sewell, p. 119. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 291 

Barbadoes ; and though marriage between whites and people of color 
is not opposed here with anything like the feeling it meets with in 
Barbadian society, yet I find, on examination, that, in Port-of-Spain, 
the ratio of births is 100 legitimate to 136 illegitimate — an exhibition 

of morality considerably below that of Havana Taking 

up the matter of crime, I find that the annual average of convicted 
offenders, for the last five years, is, for felony, 63 ; for misdemeanor, 
865; and for debt, 230; against a much lower average before emanci- 
pation Trinidad, like all the other islands, is lamentably 

behind the age in educational science ; and there is ample room to hope 
that when knowledge becomes more general, crime will decrease. Edu- 
cational statistics do not show that there is any great eagerness, on the 
part of the Creole population, to learn, or, on the part of their rulers, 
to place the means of instruction within their reach. Before emanci- 
pation, the number of children attending piiblic and private schools was 
above a thousand ; last year, the average of children attending all the 
schools and seminaries was considerably under three thousand, account- 
ing for little more than the natural increase of the population 

In regard to church statistics, I have no means of ascertaining the num- 
ber of persons who attend places of Divine worship in this island ; but 
were they in my possession, I should not have much faith in them as an 
evidence of the moral or religious tone of the community. To judge 
from appearances, the creole inhabitants of Port-of-Spain are even fonder 
than Barbadians of showing off their Sunday garments." * 

Section II. — Some interesting Facts and Speculations in 

REFERENCE TO THE INTRODUCTION OP COOLIES INTO THE WeST 

Indies. 

But another subject demands attention, in connection with the 
history of emancipation, and its disastrous results in Trinidad. 
The workings of the coolie system of labor has been involved in 
much obscurity, and contradictory accounts of its nature and 
effects have prevailed. Mr. Sewell is very full on this question, 
and offers arguments in favor of the system quite in harmony 
with the reasons presented by American slaveholders for the 
renewal of the slave-trade — its benefits as a civilizing agency. 

* Sewell, pp. 114, 115, 116. 



292 PULPIT POLITICS. 

The reader will, doubtless, be interested in seeing what can be 
said in favor of this system : 

" The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrived in the harbor of the 
Port-of-Spain in 1845. But the importation of Indian coolies was soon 
substituted for that of China. The experiment remained for some time 

doubtful But now that it has been fairly and fully tested, 

the advantages to the colony of this importation of Indian labor are 
so thoroughly established that no one who visits Trinidad in 1859, after 
having seen her in 1846, can hesitate to believe that, not only has the 
island been saved from impending ruin, but a prospect of future pros- 
perity has been opened to her such as no British island in these seas 
ever before enjoyed under any system, slave or free."* 

It appears, from this statement, that the coolie system, in the 
opinion of Mr. Sewell, is much more effective than either negro 
free labor, or negro slave labor, and he expresses the hope that 
it will be continued as a measure alike beneficial to the laborer 
and his employer, and that the outcry against coolie immigration 
will not be allowed to prevail ;f and why should it, as " it is 
merely the removing of British subjects from one portion of the 
empire to another, and where the prospects of the laborer are 
infinitely better and brighter ?"| These coolies " are perfectly 
free men and women, and, at their own option, leave the squalid 
filth and misery in which they have been accustomed to live, on 
a promise, guaranteed by government, of a free passage to the 
West Indies, certain employment, and fair remuneration for their 
services. . . . They live on the estates, rent free, in com- 
fortable cottages ; if sick, they receive medical attendance with- 
out chai'ge ; and their wages are five times more than they could 
earn at home."§ ..." The coolie works, on an average, 
nineteen and a half days during the month, and receives $5.35."|| 
. , . . " I heard of a coolie, the other day, who returned, 
after a residence in the island of ten or twelve years, with 
$9,000 ;" ^[ as this is more than six times the amount of his 
wages, even at the highest rates, it would be interesting to know 
how so much money came into his possession. 

* Sewell, p. 120. t Ibid., p. 121. J Ibid., p. 122. 

§ Ibid., p. 123. 11 Ibid., p. 127. H Ibid., p. 125. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 293 

The terms upon which the coolies are employed may be learned 
from the legislative enactments upon the subject. 

"By a colonial ordinance, passed in 1854, the Indian immigrants 
who have arrived subsequent to that period are only entitled to a free 
return after a residence of ten years. . . . The 'indenture,' of 
which I have spoken, is the contract of service into which the immi- 
grant enters with his employer, and may be general or specific in its 
obligations, according to option. The immigrant is indentured for three 
years. As soon as that period has expired, he can release himself from 
any subsequent indenture, by paying $1.20 to the agent-general for 
every month that may be wanting to complete his term. After the 
immigrants have fulfilled the obligations to which they bound them- 
selves^ they receive a certificate of what is called ' industrial residence,' 
which empowers them to act as independently as they choose for the 
future. . . . After they have fulfilled their terms of service, many 
voluntarily renew their contracts."* 

Mr. Sewell continues : 

" The blessing of giving labor and life to the colony is scarcely equal to 
the blessing that this immigration scheme has conferred upon the coolie 
himself." . . . "A poor pagan, he is brought in contact with civ- 
ilization, and soon forgets and abandons the gross superstitions in which 
he was wont to put his faith. Under this system of immigration more 
might be done toward Christianizing and civilizing the people of India 
in one year than has been done by all the missionaries that ever emi- 
grated to the East under the influence of the most enthusiastic zeal. 
The coolies who go back after an industrial residence, go back to spread 
abroad the seeds of civilization and Christianity, and, on this ground, 
the free return, granted by the government, may be advocated with 
some show of reason." f 

This is truly an encouraging picture of the coolie system in 
its moral bearings, and commends itself to the consideration of 
the Foreign Missionary Societies of all nations. To accomplish 
more in one year than has been done by the whole of them for 
the last fourscore years, would be worth the effort ! But Mr. 
Sewell fails in explaining one thing, and this may prevent the 

* Sewell, pp. 125, 126. t Ibid., p. 128 



294 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Christian world from profiting by his suggestion. He has failed 
to explain "vvhy it is, if the potency of Trinidad, as a school of 
morals and civilization, is so great, that it has manifested so 
little of its power upon its OAvn negro population ! 

But the advantages to the island are so great, that Mr. Sewell 
seems never tired of referring to them : 

" The coolies have saved the island from ruin, but, so fiir, they have 
not nearly supplied its wants." ^= . . . " I do not hesitate to say, 
and no one in this island will express a contrary opinion, that immi- 
gration has been the salvation of Trinidad. It is a blessing both to 
the employer and the employed. This is no vague assertion ; it can be 
demonstrated ; first, by an exhibition of the improved and improving 
condition of the laborer ; secondly, by the increased demand for his 
services ; thirdly, by the extension of sugar cultivation on the island ; 
and fourthly, by the augmentation of its trade." f . . . "It seems 
to have been decreed in the Providence of God that these fair and fer- 
tile islands should ultimately become an asylum for millions of wan- 
derers from heathenesse ; and the scheme of immigration, instead of 
being condemned, should be upheld, defended, and perfected by phil- 
anthropists, above all others, as a plan most happily devised for the 
elevation of a degraded people, and for the restoration to prosperity of 
a splendid inheritance." J 

Mr. Sewell shows, by figures which he presents, that the cost 
of slave labor, in former years in the British islands, and at this 
moment in Cuba, is much greater than the present coolie free 
labor, and thus demonstrates, to his entire satisfaction, that free 
labor is more economical tlian slave labor.§ He might extend 
the comparison between the two systems still farther, and, in 
addition to the favorable moral bearings of the coolie system 
upon the immigrants, there might be added other reasons in its 
favor, of equal force, in relation to its advantages over slavery to 
the planters themselves. Under slavery the industrial life of the 
imported slave lasted only about five years ; the period of coolie 
labor extends to about ten years. Under slavery the planter 

« Sewell, p. 130. t Ibid., p. 135. 

t Ibid., p. 134. 2 Ibid., pp. 55 and 279. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 295 

had to support the aged and infirm ; under the coolie system his 
obligations terminate with his contract, and the laborer then 
shifts for himself. Under slavery the planter had to support 
the children born on the plantation, a measure more expensive 
than to purchase full-grown laborers from the slave-traders ; 
under the coolie system the parents maintain their own children, 
and, at the same time, labor for a less sum of money than it cost 
the planter to purchase and support his slaves. By this mode 
of reasoning it would appear that the coolie system, in an econ- 
omical point of view, has a vast advantage over the old system 
of slavery, both to the planter and the coolie himself! The 
American planter, therefore, may take a lesson from Mr. Sewell, 
and, no longer insisting upon the renewal of the slave trade as a 
means of increasing his labor forces, proceed to introduce im- 
migrants from Africa, as ten-year laborers, returning them to 
their native homes after the termination of their " industrial 
residence." 

The failure of emancipation in Trinidad is fully conceded by 
Mr. Sewell, and its restoration to prosperity from a condition 
of " hopeless lethargy," is attributed entirely to the introduction 
of coolie labor. 

But is this the successful termination to the scheme of eman- 
cipation which was expected to follow the destruction of slavery ? 
Certainly not. Here we have a change of the whole issue made 
in the original controversy upon emancipation. Its success is 
placed upon new grounds, never mentioned when the freedom of 
the slave was proposed and executed. Then it was contended 
that free labor would be more productive than slave labor, and 
that- emancipation, therefore, would be an economic success. 
But the freeman whose labor was to be doubly productive over 
that of the slave, was that self-same slave elevated to the con- 
dition of a freeman. As a freeman, however, he is almost worth- 
less in the department of labor; and the utter ruin of the island 
had been prevented only by the substitution of the labor of a 
people of a different race, who can be stimulated to industry by 
the offer of wages. 



296 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Section III. — The Social, Moral, and Industmal Condi- 
tion OF Jamaica, as illustrating the Effects of Emancipa- 
tion WHERE IT IS unaccompanied BY ADEQUATE MeANS OF 

Moral Progress. 

Jamaica is the most important of the Avhole of the British 
West India Islands. It is much the largest in size, has the 
greatest amount of uncultivated land, and hence affords the best 
possible example of the results of negro emancipation. Unlike 
Barbadocs, there is no overcrowding of the population. The 
planters can not compel the negroes to work,, but they are left 
free to roam as they please. Whatever of energy or intelligence 
may have been possessed by the blacks, ample room for its dis- 
play has been afforded in Jamaica. Whatever of indolence may 
be inherent in them as a race, there has been nothing here to 
prevent its broadest development. 

Mr. Sewell's book has let in a flood of light upon tlie indus- 
trial, social, and moral condition of Jamaica. In the examina- 
tion of his researches into its condition, the rule adopted in 
scientific investigations — that of classifying the facts — will best 
serve to elicit truth, and establish a correct theory as to the 
results of emancipation. His book supplies much that is inval- 
uable on the negro question — much that can not be found else- 
where — and, aside from his eagerness to shield the Jamaica 
negro from the charge of indolence, and to prove that emanci- 
pation has been an undoubted success, he gives an abundance of 
facts to enable reflecting men to form their own opinions. 
Hitherto, writers of his school had kept back the facts relating 
to the prosperous condition of the West Indies, as long as the 
planters had a regular supply of laborers through the agency of 
the slave trade, and had commenced their investigations with the 
suppression of that traffic. It was thus very easy to show — as 
will be seen from the statistical table on a preceding page — that 
the decline of the exports from Jamaica had commenced nearly 
thirty years before the final emancipation of the negroes was 
effected ; and that other causes, therefore, than emancipation, 
must have been at work in producing the gradual ruin of the 
island. Mr. Scwcll, however, enters upon the whole field of 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 297 

inquiry, and admits the prosperity of the island, and of the West 
Indies generally, as long as the slave trade continued.* Disbe- 
lieving the theory that emancipation can have wrought any ill 
to Jamaica, and admitting that ruin — wide-spread and desolating 
ruin — has overtaken the island, he seeks other causes for the 
destruction which wrecked its prosperity. But we must defer 
further remarks here, and proceed with our quotations : 

"I do not think it can be disputed, if history and statistics are to 
be believed, that, since the abolition of the slave trade, fifty-two years 
ago, Jamaica has never for a moment paused in her downward career. 
I do not think it can be disputed, if actual observation is to be relied 
upon, that she has not even yet reached the lowest point of possible 
depression. Lower still she can sink — lower still she must sink, if 
her people are not imbued with a move pregnant patriotism, if the 
governing classes are not stimulated to more energetic action, and are 
not guided by more unselfish counsels. I know of no country in the 
world where prosperity, wealth, and a commanding position have been 
so strangely subverted and destroyed as they have been in Jamaica, 
within the brief space of sixty years. f .... No other English 
island has the natural advantages that Jamaica possesses ; no other 
English island exhibits the same, or anything like the same, destitu- 
tion; yet all have passed through the same experience — all have un- 
dergone the same trial. ;{;.... If the city of Kingston be taken 
as an illustration of the prosperity of Jamaica, the visitor will arrive 
at more deplorable conclusions than those pointed out by commercial 
statistics. It seems like a romance to read, to-day, in the capital of 
Jamaica, the account of that capital's former splendor. Its ' magnifi- 
cent churches,' now time-worn and decayed, are scarcely superior to the 
stables of some Fifth-avenue magnate. There is not a house in the 
city in decent repair ; not one that looks as though it could withstand 
a respectable breeze ; not a wharf in good order ; not a street that can 
exhibit a square yard of pavement ; no side-walks ; no drainage ; 
scanty water ; no light. The same picture of neglect and apatliy greets 

one everywhere The streets are filthy, the beach-lots more 

so, and the commonest laws of health are totally disregarded. Wreck 

* The author of the present volume had executed this task several years 
since, in both his " Ethiopia " and " Cotton is King." 
t Scwell, p. 169. t Ibid., p. 170. 



298 PULPIT POLITICS. 

aud ruin, destitution and ne<;lect ! There is nothing new in Kingston. 
The people, like their horc^es, their houses, and all that belongs to 
them, look old and worn. There are no improvements to be noted ; 
not a device, ornament, or conceit of any kind, to indicate the pres- 
ence of taste or refinement. The inhabitants, taken en masse, are 
steeped to the eyelids in immorality ; promiscuous intercourse of the 
sexes is the rule ; the population shows an unnatural decrease ; 
illegitimacy exceeds legitimacy : abortion and infanticide are not un- 
known The marks of a helpless poverty are upon the 

faces of the people whom you meet, in their dress, in their very 

gait Have I described a God-forsaken place, in which 

no one seems to take an interest, without life and without energy, old 
and dilapidated, sickly and filthy, cast away from the anchorage of 
sound morality, of reason, and common sense ? Then, verily, have 
I described Kingston in 1860. Yet this wretched hulk is the capi- 
tal of an island the most fertile in the world ; it is blessed with a 
climate most glorious ; it lies rotting in the shadow of mountains that 
can be cultivated from summit to base, with every product of temperate 
and tropical regions ; it is mistress of a harbor where a thousand line- 
of-battle ships can safely ride at anchor. The once brimming cup of 
Kingston's prosperity has indeed been emptied to the dregs."* 

Having, in a preceding page, given the exports of sugar from 
Jamaica, during a long series of years, quotations from Mr. 
Sewell, on this subject, need not be given here. They very fully 
sustain all he says in reference to the ruin which has fallen upon 
the island. One sentence only need be quoted, as it includes 
one year later than our statistics : 

"A comparison of Jamaican exports in 1805, her year of greatest 
prosperity, with her exports in 1859, must appear odious to her inhab- 
itants. In the former year, the island exported over 150,000 hhds. of 
sugar, and in the latter year she exported 28,000 hhds. The exports 
of rum and coflfee exhibit the same proportionate decrease." f 

But who are the sufferers by this enormous decline in the agri- 
cultural prosperity of the island? 

" The large landed proprietors and merchant potentates of the island, 
these are the men who have fallen from their high estate. The slaves 

* Sewell, pp. 173, 174, 175. f Ibid., p. 173. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 299 

of other days, tlie poor, the peasantry, these are the men who have 
progressed, if not in morality, at least in material prosperity." -'= 

Lot us, tlien, see what is the condition of this population of 
freedmen, whose progress has been promoted by the ruin of the 
class who " controlled the elements of civilization." 

" The people of Jamaica are not cared for ; they perish miserably, in 
country districts, for want of medical aid ; they are not instructed ; they 
have 110 opportunities to improve themselves in agriculture or mechan- 
ics ; every effort is made to check a spirit of independence, which, in 
the African, is counted a heinous crime, but in all other people is re- 
garded as a lofty virtue, and the germ of national courage, enterprise, 
and progress. Emancipation has not been wholly successful because 
the experiment has not been wholly tried. But the success is none the 
less emphatic and decided." f 

"Jamaica, even now, has a larger number of inhabitants to the square 
mile than any State in the Union, except Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
New York, and Rhode Island. But she stands in need of immigration 
more than any State in the Union, because a worJcing man in America 
docs as much as ten men in Jamaica.^' l 

'• I do not mean to say, for a moment, that the estates have anything 
like a suificiency of labor ; they are entirely without that continuous 
labor required, not merely for bare cultivation, but for extension and 
improvement. In the remarks I have here made, I wish merely to give 
point-blank denial to a very general impression prevailing abroad, that 
the Jamaica negro will not work at all. I wish to show that he gives 
as much labor, even to the sugar estate, as he consistently can, and that 
it is no fault of his if he can not give enough." § 

" The latest Blue-book returns give the number of males and females 
engaged in agriculture at 187,000 — more than one half of the popula- 
tion of the island — tending in itself to disprove the assertion that the 
people are averse to the tillage of the soil ; but when the further fact 
appears, that out of this number 50,000 men, with their families, have 
elevated themselves to a proprietary rank, it speaks volumes, not 
merely in their own favor, but in favor of general intelligence and a 
wholesome progress. These small proprietors can not be said to live 
comfortably, in our sense of the word. Their huts are usually made 

* Sowell, p. 172. t Ibid., p. 178. 

} Ibid., p. 279. The italics are ours. i Ibid., p. 202. 



300 PULPIT POLITICS. 

of bamboo sticks, thatched with cocoanut leaves. Most of them prefer 
the floor to sleep upon, aud few understand the enjoyment of a regular 
meal. They eat when they are hungry, and will sometimes take enough 
in the morning to last them the entire day."^= 

" The apprenticeship was, in a moment of bitter excitement, cut short 
by the planters themselves, and .320,000 slaves — an undisciplined, de- 
graded, half-savage crowd — were, without any preparation or training, 
left to their own devices. The free Colored Creoles numbered 60,000, 
and the total black and colored population of the period consisted, 
therefore, of 380,000 souls. By the census of 1844, the last taken, the 
total black and colored population was only 361,057; and if the esti- 
mate of mortality by cholera and small-pox within a few years past be 
correct, I do not believe, after making every allowance for a proper 
increase by birth, that the black and colored population of Jamaica 
exceeds, at the present day, 350,000. It will be remarked, and possi- 
bly with surprise, that the population of Jamaica, between 1834 and 
1844, must have annually decreased at the rate of nearly a half per 
cent. This decrease, it is true, is nothing like the decrease that went 
on prior to emancipation,f but it is sufficiently serious to demonstrate 
the existence of some very aggravating causes of mortality among a 
people of temperate habits, and in a climate of unquestioned salubrity. 
In the absence of statistics on the subject, it is impossible to arrive at 
exact conclusions ; indeed, official neglect, in all matters statistical, is 
so conspicuous, that I am not disposed to place implicit faith in the 
returns of the census itself. But supposing a decline, undoubted as I 
believe it to be, fully established, I do not think it difficult to assign 
more than one reason. Within a quarter of a century, some 15,000 
whites have withdrawn from the island, and the increase of half-castes 
has been, in consequence, greatly checked. Another important cause 
of the decrease of population, particularly among the blacks, is the 
lack of medical practitioners in remote country districts. The mortality 
among children, for want of proper attention, is frightful. Nor, unfor- 
tunately, is this the only evil that deprives Jamaica of a legitimate 
increase in her population, and of the wealth that such an increase 
would, of necessity, bring. Many of the vices engendered by slavery 
remain a heavy burden and curse upon society, and, among them, im- 
morality of the grossest kind pervades all classes, tainting alike the 

* Sewell, p. 248. 

t This greater mortality, at that period, wo have elsewhere assigned to the 
disparity of the sexes, due to imports of an excess of males. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 301 

civilization of towns, and the unchecked intercourse of laborers in the 
cane-fields. The natural growth of the population has thus been arrest- 
ed, and some of the most detestable crimes known to society are, even 
now, of frequent occurrence."* 

" But Jamaica, with all her faults of omission and commission, offers, 
I believe, the best examples that can be produced of the emancipated 
negro ; her inhabitants are more independent and better off than the 
inhabitants of other islands, in which over-crowded labor, or a less pro- 
ductive soil, has kept the masses in the same position that they occu- 
pied as slaves. Here the masses have made a great step forward." f 

" Of the 320,000 slaves that were liberated, only the tradesmen and 
head people, numbering not more than -15,000, had ever picked up the 
merest waifs of knowledge. The others — field laborers and domestics — 
were almost as savage and untutored as their fathers were when they 
were dragged from their homes on the African coast. The change 
they have undergone within twenty-two years is, assuredly, no sign of 
incapacity, no proof of indolence, no indication of unconquerable vice. "J 

" When Government fails, as it fails in Jamaica, to care for human 
life, and to see, with unaccountable apathy, the country destitute of 
medical aid, it is not surprising that the population should exhibit 
an annual decrease. When Government fails, as it fails in Jamaica, 
to give any consideration to popular education, it is not surprising 
that vice and immorality should alarmingly prevail. [The appro- 
priations for education are " less than a shilling for the instruction 
of each child during a space of twelve months."] Under a rule of 
such pernicious neglect, it is not surprising that the Governor, in pro- 
roguing the Legislative session of 1858, should say that, ' in many 
of the country districts, the people are abandoned to the spells and 
debasing superstitions of the working Obeah§ and Myalism, and to 
the scarcely less injurious practices of other ignorant empirics of the 
lowest grade.' " 1| 

" I think that the position of the Jamaica peasant, in ISGO, is a stand- 
ing rebuke to those who, wittingly or unwittingly, encourage the vulgar 
lie that the African can not possibly be elevated. ... I think 
the Creoles of Jamaica have disproved, by their own acts, the calumny 
of a hostile interest, that they do not work. The most ignorant work 
whenever they can get work. There are fully 20,000, of both sexes, 

* Sewell, pp. 245, 246. t Ibid., p. 246. J Ibid., p. 247. 

2 A species of witchcraft practiced among the African negroes. 
II Sowell, p. 257. 



302 PULPIT POLITICS. 

who work for the estates, and who may still be regarded as a laboring 
class. There are, probably, 10,000 who work as domestics. There are 
3,000 at work upon the roads, where scarcity and idleness of laborers 
are made no grounds of complaint. The small proprietors work on 
their own lands and on the estates, also, whenever they can."* . . . 
"But in all they grow, they may be held to waste five times as much 
as they reap."f . . . "No friendly settler from abroad has ever 
appeared among them, to stimulate their exertions by showing them 
what science has accomplished in other lands." J 

" I estimate the laboring force on the estates at 20,000 — about 
equal to the number of acres in cane cultivation. This would give some 

sixty or seventy laborers to each estate But it must not 

be imagined that these are steady laborers, working on the same estate 
from year's end to year's end. Many of them are perpetually on the 
move ; others only work on estates for a month or two out of the 
twelve ; some offer their services when they are least wanted ; some 
have provision-grounds of their own, which require their attention when 
the estates are most hardly pressed for labor ; nearly all, if they chose, 
might be independent of the planter for their daily bread. Jamaica 
labor is essentially of this uncertain character." § 

" Want of money is certainly epidemic in Jamaica. No Creole seems 
to possess the commodity ; and strangers who are believed to possess 
it, are made to pay for the general deficiency." || . . . . "I dis- 
like excessively the sea-port towns of Jamaica All the 

worst fellows in the island collect in them, and give to foreigners a 

most mistaken idea of the country people I do not doubt 

that many proprietors really suffer from the partiality of young men to 
towns ; but, at the same time, I do not doubt that many of these 
young men prefer, and very naturally prefer, the greater certainty of 
regular payment that town business offers." *|[ 

" A stranger in Jamaica, and especially an American, who knew 
nothing of its past history or present wants, would never dream that 
labor was the great desideratum. He finds, on arriving at Kingston, a 
dozen boatmen eager to convey him ashore — a dozen porters ready to 
carry his luggage — a dozen messengers quarreling to run his errands. 
He is pestered with able-bodied men, and their offers of assistance foi 
a paltry remuneration. He sees as many attendants in a petty Kings- 

» Sewell, p. 254. t Ibid., p. 252. J Ibid., p. 253. 

g Sewell, p. 264. 1| Ibid., p. 205. % Ibid., pp. 205, 206, 207, 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 303 

ton sliop as in a Broadway store, and a government clerk with as many 
servants as a foreign embassador. Servants must have under-servants, 
and agents, sub-agents. If be travel tlirougli the country, be finds 
half-a-dozen men watching a herd of cattle, and as many more looking 
after a team of oxen. He sees labor everywhere — on the roads, the 
streets, the wharves ; and it is only upon the plantations that he hears, 

any complaint He will infer, of course, that the labor 

market is overstocked father than understocked, and his inference will 
neither be wholly wrong, nor yet wholly right. It will be nearer the 
truth to say that the actual labor force of the island is frittered away. 
The laboring classes of Jamaica — I mean the men and women who live 
by labor for daily wages — dislike plantation-work, and prefer to earn 
their livelihood, whenever they can, by any other kind of toil. They 
disliked it at first, because it was the badge of a slavery still fresh in 
their remembrance."* 

" No sum of money would tempt a mulatto to work in the field. 
It is the province of the blacks alone. It ceases to be their province 
as soon as they buy the acre of land and the independence after which 
their souls yearn. It was the badge of slavery ; and it is no matter of 
surprise that there should be a prc^judice against the emblem long after 
the reality has passed forever away."t 

" I admit that Montego Bay quite charmed me with its clean streets, 
neat little patches of garden, and utter quietude, v.'ith its air of by-gone 
respectability, and the cool complacency of its people, who did not 
know or care how they lived from day to day. ' Well, massa, we do 
best we can in dese times,' was all the answer I got to repeated 
inquiries for a solution of the mystery of life in Montego Bay." | 

" Lucea is an unclean, ragged-looking village, without two houses 

conjoined, and without one house in decent repair The 

people on the route look as wild as the aspect of the country. They 
run away from a stranger, or glare at him, half in terror, half in curi- 
osity, from behind a bush." § 

" It was Christmas-eve — a season at which the West Indian negro 

goes wild with excitement No negro will work for love 

or money during this carnival time. He is literally demented, and 
can hardly give a sane answer to the most ordinary questions. All 
niglit long, and for eight successive nights, an infernal din — a concert 
of cracked drums, shrill voices, and fire-crackers — is maintained. 

• Sewell, p. 284. t IbicL, p. 288. J Ibid., p. 211. I Ibid., p. 213. 



304 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Those poor devils vrlio can not enjoy this species of amusement suffer 
the most exquisite torture." * 

The transportation to market and the sale of the products of 
the independent farmers are thus described : 

" The road lies through a wooded and rather swampy district, and, 
if it he a Saturday morning, the traveler will encounter, for several miles, 
a continuous stream of sturdy, good-looking wenches, carrying, on their 
heads, to the Spanish-Town market, most marvelous loads of fruit and 
vegetables. A few of them, more fortunate than their fellows, have 
donkeys, with well-filled panniers, but they do not, on this account, 
neglect the inevitable head-load. Considering the distance they come, 
the heat of the weather, the size of their burdens, and the paltry 
remuneration they get at market, the performance is highly creditable 
to the enterprise, energy, and activity of Jamaica negro women. I 
doubt whether our laboring men could execute the same task ; they 
certainly would not undertake it for the same consideration." f . . . . 
" Commend me to a West Indian market as a fit illustration of Babel 
after the confusion of tongues. These people are quite as anxious to 
sell as the progeny of Noah were to build. The sum of their ambition 
is to get rid of the little lot of yams and oranges that they have brought 
many a weary mile. They get a shilling or two for their produce, and 
return as happy as though they were millionaires." J 

Here the quotations in reference to the condition of the colored 
population of Jamaica may be closed. Before making any com- 
ments, the position and policy of the planters, and the embarrass- 
ments by which they have been surrounded, as a consequence of 
emancipation, must be briefly noticed. 



Section IV. — The Civil Position of the Planters under 
Emancipation, and the Causes contp.ibuting to their Ruin. 

" The planters of Jamaica constitute no longer the overruling oli- 
garchy, or ' plantocracy,' that they once actually were, and are still 
somewhat insolently designated in the bitterness of party spS"it. 
Poverty may not have humbled their pride, nor changed their belief 



* Sewell, p. 184. T Ibid., p. 184. X Ibid., p. 187. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 305 

in the ' divine right ' of the white man to enslave the black ; for, in 
their own homes, and on their own estates, and in public, whenever an 
opportunity offers, they wage, under different guises, the old war against 
free labor. But, as a political body, with power to control the destinies 
of the island, they no longer live. One after another, the relics of the 
system of coercion to which they clung are being swept away. Their 
complaints have been disregarded — their petitions have been rejected — 
until, in despair and disgust, they have almost altogether retired from 
the contest, and left the field open to their undisguised and uncompro- 
mising opponents." ='^ 

But we must go outside of Mr. Scwell's book to do justice to 
the planters, by more fully stating the causes that have led to 
their ruin; and, in so doing, the discussions will be extended 
beyond the island of Jamaica. 

The first sample of West India sugar was manufactured in 
Jamaica, in 1673. In 1713, Great Britain, having secured the 
monopoly of the slave trade, at the treaty of Utrecht, proceeded 
vigorously in the development of her West Indian cultivation. 
By the commencement of the present century, the whole of her 
West Indian Islands were exporting 636,000,000 lbs. of sugar, 
31,600,000 lbs. of coffee, 17,000,000 lbs. of cotton, and other 
products in proportion — Jamaica alone, in 1805, supplying over 
237,000,000 lbs. of sugar.f The slave trade having been pro- 
hibited in 1808, the consequent decrease of population so affected 
the production of Jamaica, that from 1807 to 1831, its exports 
of sugar fell off 38.38 per cent., and its coffee 33.8-10 per cent. 
The exports of sugar from the whole of the islands, in 1831, was 
reduced to 459,600,000 lbs. This amount seems to have been 
sufficient for the home-consumption of the English people, as the 
importation of 65,320,000 lbs. of foreign sugars, that year, was 
for re-export alone.J Up to 1844, all foreign sugars were ex- 
cluded from the British markets, so as to secure a practical 
monopoly to the West India planter. The duty on foreign sugar 
was sixty-three shillings per cwt. ; on sugar, the growth of her 
East India possessions and Mauritius, thirty-seven shillings per 

* Sewell, p. 230. t See statistical table, preceding chapter. 

X London Quarterly Keview, 1850, p. 97. 

20 



306 • PULPIT POLITICS. 

cwt. ; and on her West India colonies only twenty-seven shillings 
per cwt. — being a difference of ten shillings per cwt. in favor of 
the "West Indies as against the other British colonies, and ol 
thirty-six shillings as against all foreign sugars.* 

In 1844, however, the first inroad was made on the West India 
monopoly, by the passage of an act allowing foreign free labor 
sugar to be imported for consumption at a lower duty.f This 
measure was demanded by the British people as a public neces- 
sity — the West Indian colonies being no longer able to supply 
the demand for sugar. In Jamaica alone, its exports were 
reduced from 237,700,000 lbs. in 1805, to 67,900,000 lbs. in 
1843. t The other islands were nearly all in the same depressed 
condition. 

At this date, the English Government found its commerce 
greatly lessened, and its home-supply of tropical products falling 
below the actual wants of her own people. This diminution ren- 
dered her unable to furnish any surplus for the markets of those 
of her colonies and other countries which she formerly supplied ; 
and they were thus left open to the competition of slave-grown 
products, and became sources of additional encouragement to 
slavery and the slave trade. 

This was another of the effects of West Indian emancipation 
not foreseen by the projectors of that movement. Emancipation 
had not only broken down England's own colonies, but it was 
followed by results which tended to encourage directly, in other 
countries, both the slave trade and slavery. Here we have an 
exhibition of its workings in relation to the slave trade : In 1788, 
the exports of slaves, westward, from Africa, were estimated at 
100,000 annually ; from 1798 to 1810, at 85,000 ; from 1810 to 
1815, at 93,000; from 1815 to 1819, at 106,000; from 1819 to 
1825, at 103,000; from 1825 to 1830, at 125,000; from 1830 to 
1835, at 78,500 ; and from 1835 to 1840, at 135,800.§ 

These were alarming facts, and called loudly for energetic 

* Westminster Review, 1850, p. 276. t London Economist, 1850, p. 85 
X This is the average of five years. 

§ Report of Select Committee of House of Commons, quoted in Westminster 
Review, 1850, p. 263. 



)f 



\ 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 30 r 

action. The ablest men in the kingdom came forward to aid 
in averting the impending dangers. They did not enter into 
discussions to prove that slavery had been, from the beginning, 
tending to the ruin of the colonies. It was quite otherwise in 
their judgment. Such theories were left for the philanthropists 
of a later day. While Great Britain had possessed the monopoly 
of tropical production, she had been able to retain her national 
ascendency. She was now threatened with a diminution of her 
prosperity. To regain her former leading control, she must re- 
cover the monopoly of tropical cultivation ; and this she could do 
only by embarrassing those who had gained an advantage over 
her in this golden field of enterprise. 

That slavery, sustained by the slave trade, was an immensely 
efficient system for the promotion of tropical cultivation, was 
abundantly proved by reference to Cuba and Brazil. In 1832, 
the exports of sugar from Cuba were only about 100,000,000 
lbs., while, by 1848, they had increased to near 600,000,000 lbs. 
During the same period, Brazil and the Spanish West Indies, 
(excluding Cuba,) increased their exports of coffee from 94,080,- 
000 lbs. to 313,600,000 lbs. This enormous increase was all ef- 
fected in sixteen years, as a consequence of having a full supply of 
labor which could be controlled and multiplied to any desired ex- 
tent; and because England's prohibition of the slave trade, and her 
emancipation scheme had left open to their products a vast range 
of markets previously supplied from the British West Indies. 

But long before 1848, and while these developments were pro- 
gressing, Englishmen took the alarm, and began to consider how 
the impending evils were to be averted. Hear what McQueen, 
the able British statistician, said, in 1844, when urging upon his 
government the necessity of securing to itself the control of the 
labor and the productions of tropical Africa. The importance 
of the measure he proposed was thus urged, by showing what the 
West Indies had formerly done for the support of the British 
throne : 

" During the fearful struggle of a quarter of a century, for her exist- 
ence, as a nation, against the power and resources of Europe, directed 
by the most intelligent but remorseless military ambition against her, 



308 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the command of the productions of the torrid zone, and the advanta- 
geous commerce which that afforded, gave to Great Britain the power 
and the resources which enabled her to meet, to combat, and to overcome 
her numerous and reckless enemies in every battle-field, whether by 
sea or land, throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the 
fabled giant of antiquity. With her hundred hands she grasped her 
foes in every region under heaven, and crushed them with resistless 
energy." 

Now, if the possession and control of tropical production gave 
to England such immense resources, and secured to her such 
superiority and such power in the last century, then she would 
not yield them in the present but in a death-struggle for their 
maintenance. That struggle had commenced when Mr. Mc- 
Queen came forward with his appeals to the nation to resort to 
Africa for the remedy. Mr. George Thompson had made a sim- 
ilar appeal, in behalf of India, a few years previous, and the 
British people had responded, most heartily, to both these gen- 
tlemen.* 

English philanthropy had long been engaged in efforts for the 
elevation of the African race. The slave trade and slavery had 
both disappeared from English soil. The year 1844 demonstrated 
the futility of the schemes pursued. British tropical cultivation, 
and the commerce it sustained, both lay in ruins, while the slave 
trade and slavery laughed them to scorn. English statesmanship 
was now demanded to consider how the nation was to be compen- 
sated for the losses sustained by emancipation. The country was 
found in a position so disadvantageous, arising from the progress 
of other nations in tropical cultivation, that one principal means 
of her extrication, they believed, was in organizing an extended 
system of tropical industry in Africa. The alarm which pre- 
vailed was well-founded, and its causes were thus stated by Mr. 
McQueen : 

" The increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign tropical pos- 
sessions is become so great, and is advancing so rapidly the power and 
resources of other nations, that these are embarrassing this country 

* See Chapter XI. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 309 

(England) in all her commercial relations, in her pecuniary resources, 
and in all her political relations and negotiations." 

In proof of his assertions, Mr. M. presented the follo-vring 
facts, contrasting the condition of Great Britain with only a few 
other countries, in the production of three articles alone of trop- 
ical produce: 

SUGAR — 1842. 

FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 

CWTS. 

West Indies 2,508,552 

East Indies 940,452 

Mauritius 544,767 

Total 3,993,771 



nwTs. 

Cuba 5,800,000 

Brazil 2,400,000 

Java 1,105,757 

Louisiana 1,400,000 



ToUI 10,705,757 



COFFEE — 1842. 



POUNDS. 

West Indies 9,186,555 

East Indies 18,206,448 



Total 27,393,003 



POUNDS. 

Java 134,842,715 

Brazils 1:55,000,800 

Cuba 33,589,325 

Venezuela 34,000,000 



Total 337,432,840 



COTTON — 1840. 

POUNDS. POUNDS. 

West Indies 427,529 United States 790,479,275 

East Indies 77,015,917 Java 165,504,800 

To China, from East Indies.. 60,000,000 Brazil 25,222,828 



Total 137,443,446 Total 981,206,903 

This exhibition of facts will be full of meaning to the intelli- 
gent reader, when it is stated that nearly three-fourths of this 
elave-grown produce, according to Mr. McQueen, had been cre- 
ated within thirty years preceding the date of his calling atten- 
tion to the subject. Java and Venezuela alone were free-labor 
countries, and all the others, Louisiana excepted, were depend- 
ent upon the slave-trade for the increase of their cultivation. '^ 
England, therefore, must either regain her advantages in tropi- 
cal countries and tropical products, or she must be shorn of a 
part of her power and greatness ; and, more than this, if she 
could not effect that object, then the slave-trade and slavery 
must advance, notwithstanding the immense sacrifices she had 
made for their extinction. On this point, Mr. McQueen declares : 

*See "Ethiopia" for full details. 



510 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the cultivation 
of the tropical territories of other powers opposed and checked by 
British tropical cultivation, then the interests and the power of such 
states will rise into a preponderance over those of Great Britain, and 
the power and the influence of the latter will cease to be felt, feared, 
and respected amongst the civilized and powerful nations of the world." 

Another aspect of this subject may be considered. The 
measures adopted by Great Britain for the benefit of the black 
race resulted so disastrously to her own islands, and so favor- 
ably to the interests of those countries employing slave labor, 
by enlarging the markets for slave-grown products, that the dif- 
ficulty of inducing them to cease from it Avas increased a hund- 
red fold. Nor did the expedients to which she resorted prove 
successful in extricating her from the difficulties in which she 
was involved. A duty of thirty-nine shillings, afterward raised 
to forty-one shillings the cwt., or four and a half pence thft 
pound, was levied on slave-grown sugar. This was done with 
the design of prohibiting its importation into England, and 
of securing the monopoly of her markets to the West India 
planter. This bonus upon West India free-labor sugar was to be 
used in stimulating the negro to labor, so as to restore the 
islands to their former prosperity. But it failed to do this, as 
we have already seen, and resulted only in taxing the English 
people by the increase of prices consequent upon a diminution 
of the supply, in a single year, to the enormous amount of 
$25,000,000 more than the inhabitants of other countries paid 
for the same amount of sugar.* This enormous tax accrued, 
during 1840, from the protective duty, but was greatly above that 
of any other year during its continuance. The whole amount of 
the bounty to the planter thus drawn from the pockets of the 
English people and placed in those of the West India negro 
laborer in excessive high wages, in the course of six or seven 
years, amounted to $50,000,000.t 

To relieve the English people from the onerous tax of the sugar 
duties, and, at the same time, in obedience to the dictates of public 

* Porter, in his "Progress of Nations." t McQueen, 1844. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 311 

opinion, which required the exclusion of slave-grown products from 
the British markets, sugar, the product of /ree lahor, as previously 
noticed, was admitted at a duty of ten shillings the cwt. This act, 
passed in 1844, at once brought in an increased supply of that 
commodity. But these imports of free-labor sugar came chiefly 
from Java and Manilla — possessions of Holland and Spain. It 
was soon discovered that the Dutch and Spaniards, outwitting 
the English for once, were compensating themselves for the 
amount of ordinary supplies thus diverted to a profitable market, 
by sending to Cuba and Brazil for a sufficient quantity of their 
cheaper slave-labor sugar to make up the deficiency. By this 
curious but very natural turn in trade, the great object of the 
English was defeated. Slavery, instead of having received a 
check, by the exclusion of its products from the British markets, 
was securing to itself the most active encouragement from the 
very measures intended to promote its destruction. 

Another course of policy was immediately adopted. The act 
admitting free-labor sugar was passed in 1844. In 1845, a gen- 
eral reduction of the sugar duties was made, which reduced the pro- 
tection against foreign slave-grown sugars one-half, and, in 1846, 
the final act was passed, admitting all foreign sugars on advant- 
ageous terms. This act made a progressive reduction of the 
duties on foreign sugar, so that it should come in on equal terms 
with that of the colonies in 1849.* The conditions of the act 
being afterwards extended to 1854, the planters had a slight 
protection up to that date. 

The immense falling ofi" in the exports of the British West 
India colonies, which had taken place after emancipation, and 
the impossibility of her Eastern possessions supplying the de- 
ficiency, left the government of Great Britain no other alter- 
native but a reduction of the sugar duties, and the admission of 
slave-grown sugar. A struggle to stimulate the West India 
negroes to greater industry, and to advance them in civilization, 
had been continued unavailingly throughout thirteen years, from 
1838 to 1846, resulting only in taxing the English people, by 
protective duties, to the extent of |150, 000,000 more than the 

* Blackwood's Mag., 1849, p. 85. 



312 PULPIT POLITICS. 

consumers of other countries had paid for an equal quantity of 
sugar. The blacks had passed through a period equaling one 
generation of freedom, and the second generation seemed less 
eflficient than the first. English philanthropy despaired of African 
barbarism, and the efforts to sustain the planters had to be aban- 
doned. By this result, the whole field of the foreign markets, 
formerly supplied with English sugar, was left open for that of 
slave-labor origin. 

One point needs a word of explanation. There was a marked 
decrease in the number of slaves exported from Africa between 
the years 1830 and 1835, and an unusual increase again from 
1835 to 1839. The impulse given, among other nations, to the 
slave-trade, when it was abandoned by the United States and 
Great Britain, received no material check, until 1830, when a 
reduction of the price of sugar from forty-four shillings and six 
pence the cwt. to twenty-four shillings and eight pence, dimin- 
ished the export of slaves from Africa thirty-seven per cent., or 
from an annual average of 125,000 the preceding five years, to 
78,500 the succeeding five years.* But this depression in the 
slave trade lasted only during the time that the price of sugar 
remained at that reduced rate. In 1836, sugar again rose to 
twenty-nine shillings and three pence the cwt,, and gave an 
impulse to that traffic that increased the exports of slaves from 
Africa seventy-three per cent., or to 135,800 per annum, from 
that time till the close of 1839. f 

Such was the condition of the slave trade at the time the 
West India emancipation law went into operation. Its subse- 
quent history is very interesting, but can not be given in this 
connection. 

Ten years later, when the emancipation scheme was manifest- 
ing its tendency, the measure underwent the most rigid scrutiny. 
The low state of civilization in the AVest India Islands, it was 
found, had left the population with few wants. The blacks, for 
the most part, could not be induced to labor on the estates of 
the planters for more than three or four days in the week, and 
from five to seven hours in the day. So few, indeed, were their 

* See preceding pages in present chapter. t London Times, 1849. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF AYEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 313 

wants, that they had no adequate stimulant to perform a regular 
amount of labor.* This condition of things put it out of the 
power of the planters to produce sugar for less than £20 per ton, 
on the average, while the cost, in slave countries, was only £12 
per ton.f This discloses the fact that the planters of Cuba, 
employing slave labor, could manufacture sugar for £8 the ton 
less than those of Jamaica could produce it by free labor. As 
one of the immediate results of this condition of things, it was 
asserted, in 1848, that " the great influx of slave-grown produce 
into the English markets has, in the short space of six months, 
reduced the value of sugar from £26 to £14 per ton ; while, under 
ordinary circumstances of soil and season, the cost to us, of 
placing it in the market, is not less than £20 per ton." J This 
subjected the planter to a direct loss of £6 per ton. But that 
was not all of the obstacles with which the planter had to con- 
tend. The duties on foreign sugar, after 1846, afforded no real 
protection to him, and for this reason : 

*' The slave sugars are all so much better manufactured, which the 
great command of labor enables them to do, that, to the refiner, they 
are intrinsically worth more than ours. In short, they prepare their 
sugars, whereas we can not do so, and we pay duty at the same rate on 
an article which contains a quantity of molasses. So that, if the duties 
were equalized, there would virtually be a bonus on the importation of 
foreign sugar. The refiners estimate the value of Havana, in com- 
parison with "West India free sugar, as from three to five shillings per 
cwt. better in point of color and strength. The reason is, that these 
sugars are partially refined or clayed."'^ 

The question in relation to the decline of cultivation in the 
British West India Islands, previous to the prohibition of the 
slave trade, may now be dismissed with the remark, that the 
modern theory — that slavery was precipitating the colonies to 
ruin even before 1808 — is not sustained by the facts in the case, 
or by the opinions of the ablest British writers. Look at the 
statistics of the exports from Jamaica, for a long series of years 

* Blackwood's Mag., 1848, p. 227. t Ibid., p. 230. 

i Ibid., p., 230; from Kesolutions of a meeting at St. David's Jamaica 

§ Ibid., May 1848, p. 230. 



314 PULPIT POLITICS. 

before the prohibition of the slave trade. They show that there 
had been, up to that date, a regular increase in the production 
of the island, affected only by peace or war, or the influence of 
the seasons. The deterioration in the exports of the island did 
not begin until after the act of 1808 had cut off all supplies of 
labor. Individual instances of misfortune, mismanagement, or 
bankruptcy did not affect the general prosperity any more than 
occasional failures, in large cities, retard the general success of 
business men. Why should the British islands alone have begun 
to decline under a system that supplied an adequate labor force, 
when it is notorious that the production of Cuba and Brazil has 
increased immensely under slavery, while sustained by the slave 
trade — the increase of Brazil, in sixteen years, having been nearly 
three hundred and fifty 'per cent., and that of Cuba, in the same 
period, six hundred p>er cent. 

With all these facts before us, it is apparent that the causes 
leading to the ruin of Jamaica and the other English West India 
Islands had their origin subsequently to the prohibition of the 
slave trade, and that their nature was such that emancipation 
could not remove them. 

Before considering this point, however, we must again turn to 
Mr. Sewell's book, and conclude our investigations in relation to 
Jamaica. 

" British emancipation may have been unwise ; regarded as a great 
social revolution, tlie manner in which the scheme was executed must 
be utterly condemned; private rights were violated; their sacredness 
was dimmed by the splendor of an act which gave freedom to a people 
who did not know what freedom meant ; but the ruin attributed to it 
is, in Jamaica, too broad and too deep to be set down any longer as 
the effect of that one solitary cause. No other English island has the 
natural advantages that Jamaica possesses ; no other English island 
exhibits the same, or anything like the same destitution ; yet all have 
passed through the same experience — all have undergone the same 
trial."* 

" If the change could be traced solely to emancipation, I ehould be 
loth to justify emancipation, believing, as I do, that it would be wholly 

* Sewell, p. 170. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 315 

inconsistent with morality or the dictates of a sound policy to degrade 
that portion of the population which controlled the elements of civil- 
ization, in order to enrich an ignorant and undisciplined people. But 
the decline of Jamaica has been so stupendous as of itself to create a 
doubt whether it can be laid, in whole, or even in part, to the emanci- 
pation of the slaves."* 

The aim of Mr. Sewell is to prove that other causes than eman- 
cipation have produced the pecuniary ruin of Jamaica. Contrast- 
ing the exports preceding the prohibition of the slave trade with 
those of the present day, he fully proves his assertions as to 
the ruin which has fallen upon the island. He thus states the 
question : 

" It will be found, upon examination, that the most prosperous epoch 
in Jamaican commerce was that embraced in the seven years imme- 
diately preceding the abolition of the slave trade. Yet it is a notorious 
fact, to be proved by parliamentary blue-books, that even then over 
one hundred estates on the island had been abandoned for debt. Dur- 
ing the seven years indicated, that is, from 1801 to 1807, the sugar 
exports of Jamaica amounted annually to an average of 133,000 hhds. 
During the seven years succeeding the year in which the slave trade 
was abolished, from 1807 to 1814, the annual exports fell off to an 
average of 118,000 hhds. During the next seven years, from 1814 to 
1821, the annual average was about 110,000 hhds. ; and from 1828 to 
1835, it was 90,000 hhds. ; thus showing a steady decline, not so alarm- 
ing, it is true, as the decline of subsequent years (for the whole sugar 
exportation of Jamaica is now only 30,000 hhds.,) but sufficiently seri- 
ous to demonstrate that Jamaica had reached its maximum prosperity 
under slavery, and had commenced to deteriorate nearly thirty years 
before the emancipation act was passed, and many years before the 
design of such a measure was elaborated, or Mr. Canning's note of 
warning was sounded in West Indian ears. A comparison of Jamaican 
exports in 1805, her year of greatest prosperity, with her exports in 
1859, must appear odious to her inhabitants. In the former year, the 
island exported over 150,000 hhds. of sugar, and in the latter, she 
exported 28,000 hhds. The exports of rum and coffee exhibit the 
same proportionate decrease." f 

* Sewell, p. 172. t Ibid., pp. 1V2, 17 



316 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Lest any one should imagine that this immense falling off in 
the productions of Jamaica is in consequence of the impoverish- 
ment of the soil, Mr. Sewell must be permitted to speak on this 
point also : 

" The island, unlike others that can be mentioned, is in no exhausted 
condition, but is fresh and fair, and abundantly fertile as ever, with 
every variety of climate, and capable of yielding every variety of pro- 
duct. Up in these tremendous hills you may enjoy the luxury of a 
frosty night ; down upon the plains you may bask in the warmth of a 
fiery sun. There you can raise potatoes, here you can raise sugar-cane. 
There you will find interminable forests of wild pimento, here inter- 
minable acres of abandoned properties — a mass of jungle and luxuriant 
vegetation choking up the deserted mansions of Jamaica's ancient aris- 
tocracy. Scenes most wonderfully fair, most picturesque, but most 
melancholy to look upon ; scenes that a limner might love to paint, 
but from which an American planter would turn in disgust and con- 
tempt."* 

" The Jamaica question is prolific of controversy, and I can not hope 
that my allegations and inferences will pass unchallenged. I shall, for 
this reason, confine myself as much as possible to statements of facts. 
. . . I hope to be able to show to others as plainly as the conviction 
has come home to myself, that disaster and misfortune have followed — 
not emancipation — but the failure to observe those great principles of 
liberty and justice upon which the foundations of emancipation were 
solidly laid."f . . . "I admit, and shall prove, that want of labor 
has been one cause of the island's depreciation ; but if it were the sole 
cause, or even the preponderating cause, it would be only reasonable to 
expect that those parishes most sparsely populated would be the first 
to abandon the cultivation of cane. The reverse, however, happens to 
be the case." I 

" This want of capital — quite irrespective of a want of labor, which 
I admit to exist — has been a fruitful cause of the abandonment of sugar 
cultivation. The most hasty tour through the island will convince any 
one that contract or permanent labor — wholly independent of the valu- 
able but transient work of the negroes, who have their own properties 
to look after — is absolutely needed before the cultivation of the cane, 
in Jamaica, can be largely extended, or real estate command its positive 

» Sewell, p. 176. t Ibid., p. 177. J Ibid., p. 189. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 317 

value. I do not believe that the absence of this contract labor explains 
the present great depression of Jamaican commerce. My belief is, 
that the contract or permanent labor of coolies is needed, as a supple- 
mentary labor to that of the creole, alike on the richest and the poorest 
estates. There is sufficient labor in Jamaica now for the bare wants 
of its reduced cultivation, if the planter had means enough to pay his 
laborers, fairly and punctually, the wages they earn. Those wages are 
not too high, for they are scarcely one-fourth of what a day-laborer can 
command in America. This I state unhesitatingly. But, at the same 
time, I state with equal confidence that, in Jamaica, permanent labor, 
that is, daily labor throughout the year — that kind of labor which will 
enable the planter to improve his property and extend his cultivation — 
is wholly wanting, and, it seems to me that, without it, neither capital 
nor confidence will ever fully return to the island. The point I make 
is this : Jamaica wants labor, but that want is not the preponderating 
cause of her decline." * . . . " In a precarious business like sugar- 
cultivation, where the loss of an entire crop must, now and then, be 
expected, there is no salvation for the Jamaican planter who can com- 
mand neither capital nor credit when an unfavorable season overtakes 
him."f 

"An intelligent resident of Green Island, himself a proprietor, in- 
formed me that he knew of no estate in Hanover whose owner, pos- 
sessed of capital, or even out of debt, had been compelled, from mere 
want of labor, to abandon sugar cultivation. When I have put the 
same question to any respectable landholder in any part of the island, 
I have, in nine cases out of ten, received the same answer. The want 
of continued or contract labor is greatly deplored as a great evil ; but 
it is wrong to suppose that that want alone has ever compelled resident 
proprietors to abandon their estates to ruin."| 

" But the fact remains that the island is nearly destitute of labor ; 
that, partly through want of labor, sugar cultivation has been aban- 
doned ; and by an adequate supply of labor can it only be revived. 
Covering an area of over 4,000,000 of acres, Jamaica has a population 
of 378,000, white, black, and mulatto. This makes about eleven acres 
to each person. In the flourishing island of Barbadoes the proportion 
is nearly one and a half persons to each acre. If Jamaica were as 
thickly populated as Barbadoes, it would contain over 5,000,000 of 
Bouls, and would export a million hogsheads. Till its population has 

* Sewell, pp. 226, 227. t Ibid., p. 226. J Ibid., p. 214. 



818 PULPIT POLITICS. 

been doubled and trebled, no material improvement can be looked for. 
But where is the money — where are the vigor and the energy necessary 
to obtain this population? Whose fault is it that these are wanting, 
and that Jamaica, with far greater advantages than Trinidad or Guiana, 
has failed to follow the footsteps of their success? Is this also the 
result of emancipation ?"* 

" During all this time the prosperity of Jamaica was on the decline. 
The exportation of sugar had gradually decreased from 150,000 hhds., 
in 1805, to 85,000 hhds., in 1833. It was not emancipation, or the 
thought of emancipation, that dragged down the island suddenly from 
the pinnacle of prosperity. The deterioration progressed slowly. Be- 
tween the years 1814 and 1832, the coffee crop was also reduced one 
half; and during the fifty years that preceded emancipation, it is esti- 
mated that two hundred sugar estates were abandoned. The planters 
say that the fear of impending abolition induced them to withdraw 
capital from their estates ; but abolition was not dreamed of when the 
decline of Jamaica set in. While the slave trade was yet in operation, 
over one hundred properties had been deserted — deserted, too, for the 
same cause that compelled their desertion in later years — debt and 
want of capital." f 

" Sugar cultivation, it is hardly necessary to say, to be carried on 
with profit to the proprietor, and with ordinary chances of ultimate 
success, requires an enormous capital, not only at the outset, but to 
provide against the losses that unfavorable seasons very frequently 
entail."! 

" Hypothecation, rendered necessary by the expenses of the slave 
system and the extravagance of the planters, increased so fast that nine 
out of ten estates, at the time of emancipation, were mortgaged far 
beyond their value. Their creditors were English merchants, who 
vainly tried to keep up the cultivation of the property that reverted to 
them. How could they do so ? Estates that yielded an average annual 
income of seven per cent., with the proprietor resident, could not, with 
the proprietor absent, pay attorneys and overseers, and still be worked 
at a profit. Many proprietors tried the impossible experiment, and 
failed, while the agents and overseers made money, or ultimately bought 
in the estate at a nominal cost."§ 

"Since emancipation, this want of capital has been the chief cause 

♦ Sewell, p. 1 1 7. t Ibid., p. 232. 

t Sewell, p. 233. § Ibid., p. 236. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 319 

of an unceasing depression. The sum received by the planter for his 
slaves was insufficient to pay off his mortgages ; he had no money to 
improve his estate, or eren sustain a naked cultivation ; he had no 
money to keep roads in repair, or build trainways ; he had no money 
to pay for labor ; he had no money to meet misfortune. His mort- 
gages were foreclosed ; he reduced his cultivation ; he sold small lots 
to settlers to meet pressing wants ; the roads were so bad that the trans- 
portation of sugar to the shipping port became one of his heaviest 
items of expenditure ; the laborers, whom he neglected to pay, went 
elsewhere; the day of misfortune came and overwhelmed him with 
ruin. He was bankrupt before emancipation ; but it was emancipation 
that tore down the vail which concealed his poverty."* 

" It was their misfortune, that, between 1815 and 1825, the price of 
their great staple fell twenty-five per cent.; that between 1825 and 
1835, it fell another twenty-five per cent. ; and that between 1835 and 
1850, it fell twenty-five per cent, yet again. It was their misfortune 
that the British nation would no longer consent to be taxed to sup- 
port them, and that the protective tariff upon West India sugars should 
have been abolished. It was their misfortune to have been disturbed 
at home and abroad, and to have been the victims of a jealousy that 
refused, for years, to Jamaica alone, of all the West Indies, the priv- 
ileges and the advantages of a wholesome immigration." f 

" It was their fault that they listened to no warning — that they 
heeded not the signs of the times — that they opposed all schemes 
for gradual emancipation, and even for ameliorating the condition of 
the slaves, until the crushing weight of public opinion broke the 
chain of slavery asunder, and threw suddenly upon their own re- 
sources an ignorant and undisciplined people. Theirs were the faults 
of policy and government that drove the Creoles from plantations, 
that kept the population in ignorance, that discouraged education, 
and left morality at the lowest ebb. It is their fault that, under 
a system of freedom from which there is no relapse, they have made 
no brave attempt to redeem past errors and retrieve past misfortunes, 
but have been content to bemoan their fate in passive complaint, and 
to saddle the negro with a ruin for which they themselves are only 
responsible."! 

" This was the old plantocraey — the generous, hospitable, improvi- 
dent, domineering plantocraey of Jamaica. Their power no longer 

* Sewell, p. 238. t lV\d., p. 240. J Ibid., p. 241. 



320 PULPIT POLITICS. 

predominates. They command no credit, and no respect; and they 
obtain little sympathy in their misfortune. Even from domestic legis« 
latiou they have sullenly retired, and their places are being flist filled 
by the people whom they have so long and so vainly tried to keep 
down." * 

Mr. Bigelow, already quoted, \Then speaking of the legislation 
of the island, says : 

'' The center of legislative control is in London, and the members 
of the colonial legislature are mere shadows, destitute of the vital 
functions of legislators. The veto power of the Governor, who is ap- 
pointed by the Queen, enables him practically to control all legisla- 
tion." 

Is it any wonder, then, that the planters should have retired 
in disgust from all legislation, when they were neither permitted 
to control the free labor of the island, nor secure a sufficient 
amount of labor by coolie immigration ? By the earlier laws, 
the enormous property qualification required to make a man 
eligible to a seat in the legislature, excluded from that body all 
but the landholders.! This placed the legislation within the 
control of the intelligence of the island, and measures would 
have been adopted, but for the anti-slavery influence in England, 
that would have restored confidence, and secured advances of 
capital to the owners of the estates. Such has been the policy 
in several of the British colonies, and the planters are not only 
prospering, but have paid oif the mortgages upon their estates. 
Jamaica, unfortunately, has had to bear the brunt of the anti- 
slavery attack ; J and all tlie legislation of the planters, for their 
own relief, has been rendered a nullity by that influence. It has 
not only succeeded in this, but has efl'ected a change in the quali- 
fications for membership, which, as Mr. Sewell sa3'-s, has swept 
away the power of the planters forever. Let us hear what he 
has to say in relation to this change : 



" If I were asked to describe, in as few words as possible, the eifect 
of emancipation on Jamaica, I should say — the creation of a middle 

* Sewell, p. 242. t Bigelow. J Sewell, p. 230. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 321 

class. There was no middle class under slavery, and could be none. 

Master and servant made up the population But one most 

beneficial result stands out to-day, so prominently, and in such bulky 
proportions, that the most prejudiced can not close their eyes to its 
presence. Emancipation has created a middle class — a class who are 
born in Jamaica, and will die in Jamaica — a class of proprietors, tax- 
payers, and voters, whose property, patriotism, happiness, and comfort 
are bound up in the island's prosperity."* 

" At the lowest estimate that I have heard given, there arc now in 
the island of Jamaica fifty thousand small proprietors, owning, on an 
average, three acres of land. "f .... "The small proprietors work 
on their own lands, and on the estates, also, whenever they can. Very 
large numbers work as merchants, mechanics, and tradesmen, and not 
a few of the ex-slaves of Jamaica, or their children, are members of 
the legislature, and fill responsible offices under government. In the 
Assembly alone there are seventeen black and colored members out of a 
total of forty-seven." I . ..." Both houses were in session when I 
passed through Spanish-Town ; but as I shall hereafter have occasion 
to explain the franchise, and the efi'ects of recent legislation in the 
island, I lay up these matters for further experience. Nor will I do 
unto others as I was done by, and victimize the reader with the de- 
bates of the Jamaican Assembly. The ability of members, with one 
or two exceptions, did not seem to me to reach even a provincial 
standard of mediocrity, and the subjects discussed were, of course, 
most uninteresting to a stranger." § .... "The election law now 
in force, and passed in 1858, is a decided improvement on previous 
enactments of a similar nature. Under its provisions, a voter must 
possess a freehold of a clear rental of £6 sterling a year, or he must 
pay £20 rent, or have an annual income, derivable from business, of 
£50 a year, or, finally, he must pay taxes to the extent of £2 per an- 
num. There are, probably, 50,000 freeholders in Jamaica with a clear 
income of £6 a year, but the number of actual voters does not exceed 
3,000. A tax of ten shillings, per capita, for registration, explains 
the discrepancy. The negro does not care so much about voting as to 
be willing to pay government ten shillings for the privilege. . . . • 
But it must not be supposed that Jamaica legislation is perfect now, 
because it is no longer the exclusive prerogative of the plantocracy. 

* Sewell, p. 244. f Ibid., p. 247. 

X Sewell, p. 254. § Ibid., p. 182. 

21 



322 PULPIT POLITICS. 

It is, in fact, most wretchedly imperfect. Planters, too, of tte right 
sort, are much needed in both houses. The island depends — no one 
can doubt the fact — upon the extension of sugar cultivation for a revival 

of prosperity In Barbadoes, the plantocracy are still able to 

rule as they please; in Jamaica, they have been borne down by an 
independent middle class, who would not be denied their rights, or 
defrauded of their privileges."* .... " I think a majority of the 
small proprietors and settlers are intelligent enough to exercise the 
right of voting to their own advantage, and to the advantage of this 
great dependency of the English crown ; but it is an experiment, which, 
if carried out, will entirely remove the government of the island from 
the control of the planters — a control that, for some time, they have 
seemed utterly indifferent about possessing. The plantocracy of Ja- 
maica is a thing of the past, and, in its stead, demoeracj'^ is lifting up 
its head."f 

"I have already explained the system of immigration that obtains 
in other colonies, and shall only observe here the peculiarities of the 
Jamaica law, which came into force in 1858. By the provisions of this 
act, the immigrant laborer is entitled, free of all charges, to a certificate 
of 'industrial residence,' after he has worked five years under indenture. 
He can shorten this term of service, and receive his certificate, by pay- 
ing a commutation fee of $20 at the end of the third year, or of $10 at 
the end of the fourth year. At the end of the second i/ear, and of each 
subsequent year, he can, at his own election, change his employer, and 
give his service to whomsoever he pleases."]; . . . . "It only 
remains to add that, under the Jamaica law of 1858, the entire expense 
of immigration is imposed upon the planting interest." § . . . "The 
present scheme of immigration is, in fact, a victory of the anti-slavery 
party of Jamaica, whose views the planters have been compelled to 
adopt. A few years ago, the proprietors scouted any plan that did not 
indenture the laborers for ten years. They are now content that the 
indenture shall not exceed two or three years — sufficient to guarantee 
the planter a return for his outlay, and to give the laborer a necessary 
industrial training. The Jamaica law of 1858 was opposed in England, 
very unwisely, as I think, and much more strenuously than it was 
opposed even by ultraists within the colony. It can not, under any 
circumstances, be considered a triumph of the planting interest ; it is 

» Sewell, pp. 258, 259. t Ih'id., p. 183. 

t Sewell, p. 299. 2 Ibid., p. 301. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 323 

rather a fair expression of the liberal public sentiment of the island 
on a much debated question of the highest importance."^ 

Under this act, the planters are authorized to import 50,000 
coolies within a year. But such are its provisions, that it seems 
doubtful if they will act under it. The coolie needs industrial 
training, and, from the intimation above given, it appears that 
two or three years are necessary to accomplish this object. The 
coolie may leave the planter at the end of two years, or about as 
soon as he is prepared to become a useful laborer — the planter 
being thus deprived of all advantage from the care he has taken 
in his instruction. The whole bill is the result of the efforts of 
the " middle class," under English anti-slavery dictation, to ren- 
der the planters powerless for oppression. The planters, broken 
down pecuniarily by British legislation in behalf of the negro 
race, — hurled from the proud position assigned them as chief 
supporters of the crown, f — are now in the humiliating position 
of being controlled by the "middle class," — the "democracy 
which is lifting up its head," — whose legislators, in ability, do 
not "reach even a provincial standard of mediocrity." J; 

And why have the planters been thus embarrassed by the legis- 
lation of the island, as well as by that of the British parliament? 
Why have they not been allowed a full supply of coolie labor, 
enabling them, like the other islands who adopted the system, 
to recover from the ruin which followed emancipation ? These 
questions are readily answered. ,The English abolitionists fear 
the result of the experiment. They have a theory to maintain, 
in reference to the capacity of the African race for civilization. 
Jamaica affords the best field for their operations. The intro- 
duction of a coolie population, to the extent of the wants of the 
planters, would displace the blacks, and leave them to their own 
resources — to ultimate extinction. To save the theory, and pre- 
vent this calamity, the coolie system was long opposed as a means 
of relief to Jamaica ; and when, at length, a law authorizing the 
employment of imported labor in the island was passed by the 

* Sewell, pp. 304, 305. t See McQueen, on a preceding page. 

t Sewell, p. 282. 



324 PULPIT POLITICS. 

colonial legislature, its provisions rendered it of little practical 
importance to the planter. The reason of its inefficiency is eas- 
ily explained. The legislation of the Imperial Parliament had 
long since rendered the planter bankrupt. The colonial law, 
authorizing the importation of coolies, throws the cost of their 
transportation upon the planter alone. He has no money to 
meet that expense. But he could obtain advances from British 
capitalists, if there was an absolute certainty that the coolies em- 
ployed could be retained long enough to enable him to repay his 
loan. The provisions of the law give him but two years of ini- 
tiatory labor, at the end of Avhich he may be again without the 
means of cultivating his estate, and paying his debt. The law, 
therefore, amounts to nothing, as a means of permanent relief 
to any of the planters, excepting such as have capital of their 
own on hand — a class which are not numerous. 

But another point must be noticed, before this subject is further 
discussed. The opinions of the planters have been quoted, show- 
ing that free labor could not compete with slave labor — that the 
free negroes of Jamaica could not be induced to work like the 
slaves of Cuba, in the production of sugar, and that the decrease 
in its price, consequent upon the great increase of slave labor, had 
led to ruinous consequences. But Mr. Sewell presents a different 
view of this question. He shows, as he thinks, that, at the pres- 
ent rate of wages, free labor can compete with slave labor, pro- 
viding the free labor can be secured. His remarks on this point 
are worthy of consideration on account of the admissions made : 

" The superior economy of free labor, as compared with slave labor, 
can be demonstrated even from the imperfections and shortcomings of 
Jamaica. The planter, who complains the loudest against the parent 
government for admitting slave-grown sugars on a par with free-grown 
sugars, does not deny that free labor is the cheaper of the two. He 
attributes his misfortunes to the abolition of one system without a cor- 
responding introduction of the other. He offers to compete with slave 
labor, provided he can command a sufficient supply of free labor. , . 
With its present force of 20,000 uncertain laborers engaged in sugar 
cultivation, and utterly destitute of capital, Jamaica can not be consid- 
ered the rival of Cuba, nor ought any conclusion unfavorable to free 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 325 

labor be deduced from the depression of the one, and the higb pros- 
perity of the other. It is not a competition between slave and free 
labor, but, practically, between slave labor and no labor at all. And 
herein we find a state of things for which the Imperial Government is, 
in a measure, responsible. It was not that they committed the daz- 
zling mistake of a too sudden emancipation ; it was not that they with- 
drew protection from the infant system, and left it, unaided, to fight out 
the battle, but that they cut off the reinforcements which, in a sparsely- 
settled country, free labor imperatively demands ; they refused supplies 
of labor, more needed in Jamaica than in northern colonies, and with- 
out which even the most enduring energy would have been compelled 
to halt in the race for empire. It is folly to dream over the mistakes 
of British emancipation, if we fail to read in them a practical lesson ; 
and such a lesson as will benefit Jamaica at the eleventh hour, is yet 
to be learned. By the light of experience we are able now to see that 
if a free immigration had been poured into the island hefore aboli- 
tion — if free labor had been introduced to fight slave labor on its own 
ground — slave labor must have been defeated in the contest ; and no 
violent revolution would have marked its extinction. If free immigra- 
tion had been poured into Jamaica after abolition, there can not be a 
reasonable doubt that the island would have been redeemed from bank- 
ruptcy, and from other burdens laid upon it by a slave system, and the 
peculiar aristocracy that it fostered. Other colonies have thus regained 
their lost position. Other colonies established, beyond a peradventure, 
the superior economy of free labor, and even Jamaica, with its ruined 
proprietary and scanty population — desolate, deserted, degraded Ja- 
maica, points feebly to the same result."* 

What have we here, but the acknowledgement that the only 
hope for the restoration of "desolate, deserted, degraded Ja- 
maica" to her original prosperity is — not in the improving in- 
dustry of the blacks, but — in the introduction of coolies ? And 
what is this, but to admit that the expectations of the British 
people, in reference to the moral and industrial progress of the 
negroes, under freedom, have been wholly disappointed ? 

Mr. Sewell must be consulted a little further. He presents 
estimates, shoAving the difference in the cost, per pound, of the 
production of sugar under slavery and under freedom, in Cuba, 

* Sewell, pp. 260, 261, 262. 



326 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbadoes. For the general statements 
upon which his conclusions are based, the reader is referred to the 
book itself. The estimates for Cuba are for 1852, and thougli the 
crop and tlic labor force, under the influence of the slave trade, 
have increased one hundred per cent. Avithin the last eight years, 
yet Mr. Sewell thinks they are as applicable now as then.* His 
statement is as follows : 



ISLANDS 


POUNDS OF SU- 


LABOR 


AV. OF LBS. 


COST OF EACH 


COST OF SUOAB 




OAU PRODUCED. 


FORCE. 


PER LAB'eEK 


LAB. PER ANN. 


PER POUND. 


Cuba, (slave) 


577,200,000 


120,000 


4,810 


$144,.30 


Sets. 


Jamaica, (slave). 


160,000,000 


70,000 


2,286 


100,00 


4 37-100 cts. 


Jamaica, (free)... 


50,000,000 


20,000 


2,500 


50,00 


2cts. 


Trinidad, (free).. 


65,000,000 


17,000 


3,823 


66,00 


1 72-100 cts. 


Barbadoes, (free) 


68,000,000 


22,000 


3,090 


44,00 


1 2-5 cts. 



Now, let us understand this matter, and not intermix classes 
of facts which should be kept separate. The prohibition of the 
slave trade had been followed by a large decrease in the slave 
population, and a corresponding diminution in the amount of ex- 
ports. This decrease was mainly due to the fact, notorious to all, 
that the slave trader, obeying the demand in the slave market, 
imported a large excess of males, and that the mortality among 
this class of laborers was always very rapid. Great embarrass- 
ments had fallen upon the planters, in consequence of these 
results of the prohibition of the slave trade. British commerce 
was also suffering in a proportionate degree. Two objects were 
proposed to be accomplished by emancipation. It was to restore 
the material prosperity of the planters, and advance the physical 
and moral improvement of the negroes. Tliesc results, it was 
urged, would surely follow the abolition of slavery, because one 
freeman, laboring under the stimulus of wages, would be more 
than equal to two slaves, toiling beneath the lash ; and then the 
negro, desirous of acquiring a position of social equality with the 
white man, would eagerly prosecute an education for his intellec- 
tual elevation, and avoid every vice that would add a stain to his 
moral character. It was expected that these objects would be 
accomplished by the harmonious action and co-operation of the 
parties interested — the planters and the negroes. But if these 



Sewell, p. 270. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 327 

objects failed in the accomplishment, then emancipation would be 
a failure ; and not only would the planters and negroes be the 
sufierers, but British commerce would also receive injury, and the 
nation fail to maintain its ascendant position. 

Well, the co-operation of the planters and the negroes has 
proved to be wholly impracticable. In no one thing have the 
negroes imitated the whites, except in avoiding continuous labor. 
As a necessary consequence of this unforeseen result, the planters 
have been ruined. It is undeniable, then, that emancipation, in 
its expected results, as a measure for Ihe restoration of the econ- 
omical prosperity of Jamaica, is an utter failure. 

But some further examination of this point is needed. It is 
useless to contend that free labor is less expensive than slave 
labor ; nay, it is mockery to do so, Avhen the free labor cannot be 
had. Am I not right in this assertion ? What are the facts ? 
Jamaica has lost none of her black population by emigration. 
The former slaves, or their descendants, are still upon the island. 
The only difference is, that they are now freemen. In the best 
days of slavery, Avhen the planters controlled the blacks, they 
exported, during the three years preceding the prohibition of the 
slave trade — 1805 to 1808 — an annual average of nearly 222,- 
500,000 lbs. of sugar. With that same population, or its descend- 
ants, as freemen, the planters now export less than 50,000,000 
lbs. We are told that the cost of the production of this free-labor 
sugar is only 2 cents per lb. ; whereas, the former cost of produc- 
tion, under slavery, was 4 37-100 cents per lb. Be it so ; but 
which system — freedom or slavery — yields the greatest aggregate 
profit ? The sugar of both kinds sold at, say 7 cents per lb, ; or 
a profit of 5 cents per lb. on the free-labor product, and 2 63-100 
cents per lb. on the slave-labor product. The net profits to the 
planters on the 50,000,000 lbs. of free-labor sugar is, therefore, 
$2,500,000, while on the 222,500,000 lbs. of slave-labor sugar it 
was .$5,851,750 — a difference of §2,351,000 per annum in favor 
of slavery. Or, taking the last years of slavery, from 1822 to 
1832, when the average annual exports were reduced to 153,700,- 
000 lbs., and still slavery receives $4,043,000 for its sugar — being 
an advantage over free labor of $1,543,000. 



328 PULPIT POLITICS. 

This, then, to the planter of Jamaica, is the result of emanci- 
pation ; and this its effects upon British commerce. The pro- 
hibition of the slave trade reduced the exports from 222,000,000 
lbs. to 153,000,000 lbs. ; and emancipation, still more disastrous, 
reduced it to less than 50,000,000 lbs. Never was there a greater 
failure in any human expectations than has folloAved the abolition 
of slavery in Jamaica, so far as relates to the economical in- 
terests involved. 

In justice to Mr. Sewell, however, it must be observed, that he 
makes the comparison of the relative cost of the production of 
sugar under slavery and freedom as an argument for the intro- 
duction of coolie laborers — a few ten thousands of whom, as in 
Mauritius and Trinidad, would, in his opinion, soon restore the 
prosperity of Jamaica. 

With these remarks in relation to the economical results of 
emancipation in Jamaica, we may proceed to the consideration 
of its moral effects upon the negro population of that island — 
referring, in passing, to the others also. 

In a preceding chapter, the history of missions in the West 
India Islands, together with the opposition of the planters to the 
religious instruction of the slaves, has been very fully presented. 
It may be remarked here, that little had been accomplished in 
the West Indies by the missionaries until near the time of the 
prohibition of the slave trade. The foreign missionary work was 
then in its infancy, and but few stations had been established 
in heathendom. Encouraging success attended the efforts made 
among the slaves, and their moral progress, under instruction, 
was fully equal to that of any other barbarous people where mis- 
sions had been introduced. Any tardiness occurring in the pro- 
gress of the work was caused more by the hostility of the plant- 
ers than by any indisposition on the part of the slaves to attend 
upon religious instruction. Placed under restraints that confined 
them within the limits of the estates to which they belonged, they 
gladly listened to the Gospel as the first exhibition of human 
sympathy ever made in their behalf. Unable to wander from 
their homes, their instruction had a regularity ohat gave it effi- 
ciency. Had this system of instruction and restraint been con- 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 329 

tinued without interruption, the moral progress of the negroes 
might have been greatly promoted; but the instruction was inter- 
rupted by the planters, and the restraint wholly removed by eman- 
cipation. As a necessary consequence of the unstable character 
of the blacks, this freedom from restraint greatly embarrassed 
the missionaries. Such was the serious nature of the reverses 
experienced, as a legitimate result of the abolition of slavery, and 
such the diminution in the number of converts, that the greatly 
increased missionary force since employed, has scarcely been able 
to bring up the missions to the condition in which emancipation 
found them. 

To the question, whether emancipation was necessary as a 
means of moral progress to the blacks, but one answer can be 
returned. The planters, especially in Jamaica, continued their 
hostility to the religious instruction of their slaves up to the last 
moment. There is no reason to suppose that this hostility would 
have abated, had they been left to follow their own inclinations. 
So far, then, as the planters were concerned, no progress could 
have been made by the slaves while the authority of the masters 
was continued. Emancipation, or a change in the policy of the 
masters, was necessary, therefore, under the circumstances, to 
the moral progress of the blacks. 

But the end to be attained was the moral elevation of the ne- 
groes, and emancipation was only urged as a measure essential 
to the accomplishment of that object. Had the masters all ex- 
erted themselves for the spread of the Gospel among their slaves, 
or had they even permitted the missionaries to have free access 
to them, British Christians would not have urged emancipation 
as necessary to the Christianization of the blacks. This is appar- 
ent from the f\ict that the few planters who introduced the Gos- 
pel into some of the islands were viewed as men of extraordinary 
piety and moral worth, and their deaths lamented as an irrepar- 
able loss to the Church. 

The object, then, to be attained, was not emancipation for the 
sake of the measure itself, but emancipation as the only means 
by which the slaves could be placed in a position favorable to 
moral progress. If that progress could have been attained with- 



330 PULPIT POLITICS. 

out emancipation, and the welfare of the negro had been the only 
question involved, there is no reason to suppose that the British 
people would have insisted upon the abolition of slavery. But, 
at that moment, there appeared to be no hope for the negro ex- 
cept in freedom ; and freedom was accordingly conferred upon 
him. This, also, was the more cheerfully done, as the advance- 
ment of the black man was expected to secure a proportionate 
increase in the economical prosperity of the islands. 

Section V. — Effects of Emancipation upon the Moral and 
Physical Condition of the Negroes in the British West In- 
dia Islands, as compared with that of Slavery upon the 

SAME PtACE in THE UNITED StATES. 

The point of greatest interest in our investigations is just here, 
and the whole subject, so far as it relates to the colored people, 
involves itself in a single question — Has the progress of the 
West India negroes, under freedom, been such as was expected 
by the British people, or at all proportionate to the sacrifices 
made for their advancement? If it has not, then emancipation 
has been not only an economical failure, but it has been of so 
little benefit to the negroes, that if religious instruction, under 
slavery, could have been secured, as is the case in the United 
States, then their moral progress and physical welfare would 
both have been better promoted while in bondage than it has 
been under freedom. 

Up to the date of West India emancipation, the physical wel- 
fare of the slaves of the United States had been so well secured 
that their increase was equal to that of any other people in the 
world. Their moral progress, too, was quite favorable, as is in- 
dicated by the numbers Avho had become converts to Christian- 
ity. Very different, indeed, was the condition of the slaves of 
the United States, in these respects, as compared with the free- 
men of the West Indies at this moment. Am I not justifiable in 
making this assertion? 

Taking the testimony of Mr. Sewell, in connection with what 
is contained in some of the preceding chapters, as a fair exhibi- 
tion of facts, no one can doubt that the colored people of the 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 331 

wliole of the islands have utterly failed in meeting public expec- 
tation. They have failed in the progress anticipated, both physic- 
ally and morally. I do not say that they would have improved 
under slavery, had emancipation no^ been adopted. I believe 
they could not have made much progress under the system of 
West India slavery, because the planters refused to allow them 
the means of moral progress. But the Gospel, which was then 
refused to them by the planters, is now voluntarily rejected by 
themselves. The means of moral elevation, which the despotism 
of their masters withheld from them, as slaves, is now repelled 
with equal force by their own unbridled licentiousness, as free- 
men. What says Mr. Sewell as to their condition, both physi- 
cally and morally ? " Immorality of the grossest kind pervades 
all classes, tainting alike the civilization of towns and the un- 
checked intercourse of the laborers in the cane-fields. The 
natural growth of the population has thus been arrested, and 
some of the most detestable crimes known to society are, even 
now, of frequent occurrence." In the capital of Jamaica, " the 
inhabitants, taken en masse, are steeped to the eyelids in immor- 
ality ;" while "they perish miserably in country districts for want 
of medical aid." This rural population "are not instructed;" 
and " they have no opportunities to improve themselves in agri- 
culture ;" so that " in all they grow they may be held to waste 
five times as much as they reap ;" and, besides, "'a working-man, 
in America, does as much as ten men in Jamaica." " In many 
of the country districts the people are abandoned to the spells 
and debasing superstitions of the working Obeah and Myalism," 
a species of African witchcraft. In Barbadoes, " among their 
other vices, immorality and promiscuous intercourse of the sexes 
are almost universal. From the last census it appears that more 
than half of the children born in Barbadoes are illegitimate." 
In Antigua, " the number of illegitimate births averages fifty- 
three per cent. In some other islands it exceeds one hundred 
per cent." In Kingston, Jamaica, " promiscuous intercourse of 
the sexes is the rule ; the population shows an unnatural de- 
crease ; illegitimacy exceeds legitimacy." In Antigua, " the agri- 
cultural population, for twenty years past, has diminished at the 



332 PULPIT POLITICS. 

rate of a half per cent, per annum, although the island is remark- 
ably healthy. The mortality is greater now than it was in the 
days of slavery; and the mortality is less on estates, at present, 
than it is in the villages wnere the laborers reside on their own 
lands." In Jamaica, "the mortality among the children, from 
want of proper attention, is frightful. Nor, unfortunately, is this 
the only evil that deprives Jamaica of a legitimate increase in 
her population," Among the squatters and small proprietors, 
" few understand the enjoyment of a regular meal. They eat 
when they are hungry, and Avill sometimes take enough in the 
morning to last the entire day." 

Upon this array of facts, from the pages of Mr. Sewell, which 
are elsewhere presented in a more extended form, many will be 
surprised at the conclusions drawn by that gentleman. But there 
is nothing unusual in men drawing false conclusions from the 
facts before them. Nothing is more common in the field of the 
natural sciences — the branch of geology, for example — than for 
the most successful collectors of facts to prove themselves very 
often the poorest in generalization — the least capable of compre- 
hending the true relations of the materials they have accumu- 
lated. The case of the Pluionists and Neptunists, in the early 
history of geology, is one in point. Every fact discovered among 
the rocky strata of the earth's crust proved to the Plutonists 
that the world had its origin from fire; while the same kind of 
researches, by the Neptunists, led them to contend that all such 
things had their origin from water. 

So is it of the class of men to whom Mr. Sewell belongs. They 
have theories in relation to slavery and emancipation : — that only 
evil can come of the one, and only good of the other; so that 
all facts and results which do not accord Avith these theories 
make so little impression upon their minds as to receive no atten- 
tion in arriving at their conclusions. Hence it is, that all facts 
which would show any good results from slavery, or any ill re- 
sults from freedom, are instinctively rejected by this class of 
philanthropists. 

With this solution of the process by which the mental action 
of ^Ir. Sewell is controlled, the reader may solve many seeming 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OP WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 333 

mysteries in the statements of that gentleman, quoted at large, 
in the present chapter. A few only of the prominent defects in 
his reasonings need be noted here. 

The enjoyment of perfect freedom of action, by the negro, is 
held, by Mr. Sewell, to be paramount to all other considerations. 
This is a fair inference from much of the language he employs ; 
and yet, no doubt, he would deny that he advocates any such an 
absurdity. But what are the facts ? He commends the negro 
for refusing to assent to the abridgement of his liberties, required 
by the system of tenancy-at-will. Rather than submit to this 
regulation, which demands continuous labor, Mr. Sewell justi- 
fies him in taking up his residence beyond the reach of schools, 
churches, physicians, and every means of civilization, and almost 
every personal comfort — sleeping upon the floor of his bamboo 
hut, eating his one meal a day, and leaving his wife to carry to 
market, upon her head, the crop of vegetables they produce ! 

According to Mr. Sewell, the negro endures all these disadvant- 
ages most heroically, not to avoid slavery — for the question is 
no longer between liberty and slavery — but merely from an in- 
veterate aversion to engaging, upon the sugar plantations, in 
regular contract labor. This aversion to continuous industry is 
considered by Mr. Sewell as the natural outgrowth of emancipa- 
tion : because all the ideas of slavery that ever entered the mind 
of the negro were associated with sugar culture ; and all the 
dreams of liberty that ever agitated his thoughts included the 
hope of entire exemption from that kind of work. His master 
was a gentleman, but his master never engaged in working at 
sugar cultivation ; therefore, argued the negro, to be a gentle- 
man, he must not work at that employment. 

Such sentiments in the negro, Mr. Sewell believes, go very far 
in demonstrating that he has made vast progress toward a higher 
and nobler manhood ; and yet, the terms of the contract made 
with the coolie, and so highly commended in his book, for its 
Christianizing and civilizing tendencies, is essentially the same, 
in all its provisions, with the tenancy-at-will required of the 
negro, and which he rejects with disdain as so insulting to his 
dignity ! 



334 PULPIT POLITICS. 

But this point needs no further comment, except to say that 
no one who will carefully study the traits of character attributed 
by Mr. Sewell to the West India negroes, and fairly contrast 
them with the well-known habits of the native Africans, can come 
to any other conclusion than that the inherent barbarism of the 
race is fast resuming its sway over the great majority of the 
blacks in the West Indies ! 

Nor is this result, under the circumstances, a strange one. On 
the contrary, it is just what should have been anticipated. The 
slave trade found the negroes barbarous : slavery, with a few 
exceptions, left them barbarous ; and, destitute as they have been 
of the means of moral elevation, they, of course, could make no 
moral progress. 

But who was in fault in producing these melancholy results ? 
Not the negro, but the system adopted for his liberation from 
bondage. He had been kept, while in slavery, in utter ignorance 
and degradation ; and emancipation, making no provision for his 
education, "delivered him bound hand and foot by his own ignor- 
ance, incapacity, and vice, to a miserable destruction." * 

Is this language too strong ? Then, look again at what is said 
in relation to the destructive vices prevailing in all these islands, 
and the iniiuence which the demoralization of the population has 
had in diminishing their inhabitants. This is a dreadful fact, 
and, though it has been often referred to in the course of our in- 
vestigations, it yet demands a more minute examination in this 
new aspect of the emancipation question. 

To judge accurately in relation to the effects of emancipation 
upon the increase or decrease of the African population in the 
British West Indies, some suitable standard of reference must be 
taken, which will show the ordinary rate of increase of the race 
under favorable circumstances. Africa has no statistics. Mexico 
and the South American Republics are equally unsatisfactory. 
The United States affords the only standard that can be used; 
and of it the assertion has been made, that " the slavery which 
existed in the Roman Empire, in the apostles' time, was, by no 
means, so debasing, hopeless, and oppressive as negro slavery in 

♦ Boston Courier, March 29, 18G1. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIA EMANCIPATION. 335 

our country."* This assertion was made in the early days of 
the anti-slavery movement, when the advocates of the abolition 
of slavery first began their employment of the press to influence 
ecclesiastical legislation, and secure the excli\sion of the slave- 
holder from the communion of the Church. 

But we must again hear the above writer. After referring to 
several authors, he says no one can escape the conclusion " that 
slavery, in modern times, exists in its mildest form in countries 
where the Roman Catholic religion is the established religion, 
and where the government is despotic or purely monarchical, as 
in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies — that it becomes more 
ferocious and oppressive in Protestant countries, where the gov- 
ernment is a mixed monarchy, as in the British colonies — and 
that it is most debasing of all in countries where the religion is 
purely Protestarit, and the government free and republican, as 
our oivn." f 

The standard chosen with which to compare the West Indies, 
if we give credit to this writer, should give to these British colo- 
nies a decided advantage, inasmuch as the slavery of the United 
States, in his judgment, has been the most ferocious, oppressive, 
and debasing of all other countries — British, Spanish, Portuguese, 
Roman. But if it has been otherwise, then we have, in his lan- 
guage, a fair specimen of the unscrupulous character of the men 
who, by gross misrepresentation, misled the churches into meas- 
ures destructive of their peace, and laid the foundation for that 
political agitation which precipitated the country into civil war. 

Let us, then, look at the facts, remembering we are writing 
history, and not depending upon imagination for the basis of our 
conclusions. Already we have drawn the contrast betv^een the 
facilities afforded in the West Indies and the United States for 
the religious instruction of the slaves. By turning to the history 
of that work, in a preceding chapter, and tracing it from the be- 
ginning up to 1830, it will be seen that the facts are altogether 
different from the representations of this writer of 1829, No 
reference, therefore, need be made here to anything but the ef- 
fects of emancipation upon the increase or decrease of population. 

* Christian Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, August, 1829, p. 230. t Ibid. 



336 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Taking the United States as the standard of comparison, it. is 
found that, at the date of the Declaration of American Indepen- 
dence, the several colonies had an aggregate of about 500,000 
slaves. This fact is stated in the American Almanac^ and is 
based on satisfactory data.* The first census was taken in 1790, 
and from that period to the present, the ratio of annual increase 
has been fully ascertained. la the year 1800, the slaves of the 
United States had increased to 893,000, and in 1830, to 2,009,- 
043 — being an average annual increase, from 1800 to 1830, of 
3.10-100 per cent. The ratio of annual increase was slightly 
augmented from 1800 to 1810, by the addition of 39,000 blacks, 
on the atlmission of Louisiana; and was diminished, from 1820 
to 1830, by the emancipation of the remnant of 10,000 slaves 
remaining in New York, in 1827. For all practical purposes, 
the ratio of increase of the slave population in the United States 
may be estimated at three per cent, per annum, though it is a 
fraction less. 

But this statement does not do full justice to the question of 
the increase of the African race in the United States. In 1790, 
there were only 40,212 free colored persons ; in 1830, they had 
increased to 319,599, being an increase at the average rate of 
nearly 5J per cent, per annum, and making a total colored popu- 
lation, slave and free, in 1830, of 2,328,642. Nearly one-half 
of the increase of the free colored people must have been by 
emancipation. 

* The estimates are as follows, for the several colonies : 

Massachusetts, 3,000 

Ehode Island, 4,370 

Connecticut, 5,000 

New Hampshire, 629 

New York, 15,000 

New Jersey, 7,600 

Pennsylvania, 10,000 

Delaware, 9,000 

Maryland, 80,000 

Virginia, 165,000 

North Carolina, 76,000 

South Carolina, 110,000 

Georgia, 16,000 

Total, 501,699 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 337 

Turning to the British West Indies, we find, that when the 
slave trade ceased, in 1808, these islands had a slave population 
of 800,000 — being nearly equal to the number in the United 
States in 1800. Did they increase as rapidly as the colored 
population of the United States ? By no means. Instead of that, 
the census of 1835, taken under the emancipation act, shows a re- 
duction of the slave population to 660,000. This number includes 
only the slave population, and not the free colored and the whites. 

Had the increase of the blacks in the British West Indies, after 
the suppression of the slave trade, in 1808, been equal to the in- 
crease of the slaves in the United States, these islands Avould have 
numbered, at the time of emancipation, in 1838, nearly 2,000,000 ; 
but, from causes before explained, there was no increase during 
that period, but a falling off in their numbers to the extent of 
140,000 ! 

Here, then, is the contrast between the slavery of the United 
States and that of the West Indies, in its effects upon the increase 
or decrease of the slave population in the two cases, respectively, 
from the prohibition of the slave trade, by both countries, to the 
final abolition of slavery in the British colonies. The comparison 
is for an equal number of years, but not of even date — the United 
States beginning with 1800 and ending with 1830, the colonies 
beginning with 1808 and ending with 1838. The slave popula- 
tion of each, in the outset, was nearly equal — 893,000 to 800,000 
— and the final result shows an increase for the United States, 
exclusive of emancipations, of 1,116,000, and a decrease for the 
British colonies, on the slave population alone, of 140,000 ! * 

But let us proceed to the main point — the effect of emancipation 
upon the population of the British West Indies, as contrasted with 
that of slavery on the slave population of the United States : 

* Exactness as to the United States cannot be had, from 1790 to 1808, because 
emancipation, on the one hand, was adding to the free colored population, and 
the slave trade, on the other, was increasing the number of the slaves. The ratio 
of increase of the former, from 1798 to 1800, was 8 22-100 per cent, per annum, 
and of the latter, 2 79-100. Again, from 1800 to 1810, the increase of the former 
was 7 20-100, and of the latter, including 39,000 from Louisiana, it was 3 34-100 
per cent, per annum. The census for the British colonies was taken in 1835, but 
will represent 1838. 

22 



338 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Beginning where we left off, the slave population of the UniteG 
States, in 1830, was 2,009,043, which had increased, in 1860, to 
3,950,343 — an increase indicating a condition of physical com- 
fort fully equal to that of the populations of the civilized world 
generally. Between 1830 and 1840, the cholera visited Amer- 
ica, and the ratio of increase of the slaves was considerably re- 
duced. 

The West India Islands, in 1838, emancipated 660,000 slaves. 
Besides these liberated slaves, the islands had a considerable popu- 
lation of whites and free colored people — Jamaica, alone, having 
60,000 of the latter.* All the other islands, probably, had about 
an equal number of free colored persons. From the best data 
before us, the conjecture is, that the whites of the whole islands 
may have been near 50,000. If so, then, the whole population, 
including all colors, was about 834,000. 

Here, now, as to population, is the point from which the British 
West India colonies took their start in the career of freedom. 
The whole population was now upon an equality, and white, yel- 
low, black, could compete, upon equal terras, under the civil law, 
for wealth and distinction. A generation nearly had passed 
away since any blacks had been imported from Africa. The 
sexes had become equalized, and the belief existed, that from the 
date of emancipation, and as a necessary consequence of that 
measure, the natural increase of the population would be such as 
to add rapidly to the labor force of the islands. 

We have seen that the slave population of the United States 
has doubled since 1830. Has anything so favorable occurred to 
the free population of thQ West Indies ? Alas, no ! American 
slavery proves itself, as to its effects upon population, a perfect 
paradise of physical comfort and moral influence, as compared 
with the British West Indies. 

Let us ascertain the facts, as far as practicable. Jamaica 
emancipated 320,000 slaves in 1838, and, at the same time, had 
60,000 free colored people. This gave her a total colored popu- 
lation of 380,000, at the time of emancipation. The present 
population of Jamaica, exclusive of the whites, is 350,000 f — 

"Jewell, p. 245. T Sewell. 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION. 339 

being a decrease of 30,000 in 22 years ! Had there been an in- 
crease of the colored population of Jamaica under freedom, in the 
same ratio in which those of the United States have increased 
under slavery, that island, in 1860, would have numbered about 
640,000 souls, instead of having had a decrease of 30,000 ! 

The total population of Jamaica, whites, blacks and mulattoes, 
At present, is 378,000,* of which, according to the above statis- 
tics, 350,000 are mulattoes and blacks. The cholera in Jamaica, 
as well as in the United States, was severe among the colored 
population ; but their scattered condition in Jamaica, placing them 
beyond the care of the whites, and leaving them without proper 
medical attention, may have caused a greater proportional mor- 
tality among them, in that island, than occurred in the United 
States. This, however, was one of the consequences of freedom. 

In turning to the other British islands, we find that Barbadoes, 
Antigua, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Tobago, Trinidad, 
Grenada, Nevis, Montserrat, St. Kitts, and the Virgin Islands, 
embrace an aggregate population of about 395,000, including 
whites, blacks, and mulattoes. The first six of these islands in- 
clude nearly 21,400 whites, at present, but the number of the 
whites and free colored persons, and the number of slaves eman- 
cipated, in 1838, are not given ;t so that it is impossible to de- 
termine, with exactness, the extent of increase or decrease in 
their colored population. The last six of these islands seems to 
have afforded to Mr. Sewell — from whom the statistics are gath- 
ered — no means of determining their white population, either at 
present or before emancipation ; nor has he given the number of 
free colored persons in them at the time of the abolition of slavery. 
One reason of the defect is, that, under freedom, many of the 
islands are careful to exclude all reference to color in the census 
returns. 

By adding the present colored population of these islands — 
373,600 — to the present number of the colored people in Jamaica 



* Sewell, p. 177. 

t Their white population stands thus, according to Mr. Sewell : Barbadoes, 
15,824; Antigua, 2,172; St. Vincent, 1,500; St. Lucia, 958; Dominica, 850; 
Tobago, 160. 



340 PULPIT POLITICS. 

— 350,000 — the whole colored population of the British "West 
India colonies, in 1860, is found to be 723,600. This, however, 
includes the whites in the last six islands enumerated, and eman- 
cipation has that advantage in these estimates. 

The contrast between freedom and slavery, in its effects upon 
population, may be thus summed up : 

Total slaves emancipated in 1838, 060,000 

By Jamaica, 320,000 

By the other islands, 340,000 

660,000 
Add free colored poi:)ulation in 1838, 

In Jamaica, 60,000 

In the other islands, 60,000 

120,000 

Total colored population in 1838, 780,000 

Total colored population in 1860, 723,600 

Decrease oi colored population under freedom, 56,-100 

Here we have the effects of emancipation upon the increase of 
population — resulting, in the aggregate, in causing a decrease 
in the population of the islands, during freedom, of more than 
56,000 souls out of a population of 660,000, or more than eight 
per cent, of a loss in twenty-five years ! 

In reference to the production of the islands, and the econ- 
omical failure of emancipation, especially in Jamaica, the late 
reports to Parliament fully sustain the assertions of Mr. Sewell, 
and corroborate the testimony we have collected from other 
sources. The report of the Governor, says the New York Inde- 
pendent, " gives a good account of the happiness of the popula- 
tion, so far as a mere animal life of independence is concerned, 
but holds out little encouragement to those who would hope that 
labor may be attracted to any system of combined enterprise, such 
as the grotvth of cotton, or of any produce in which joint-stock 
capital might be embarked. The four great staples of export are 
still sugar, rum, coffee, and pimento ; but the quantities of sugar 
and coffee seem rather to diminish than increase. An export of 
sugar of about 30,000 tons, more or less, according to the nature 
of the seasons, is considered the best result that can be hoped for 
from the existing population. . . . The obvious remedy is 



ECONOMICAL FAILURE OF WEST INDIAN EMANCirATION. 341 

".onsidered to lie in efforts for obtaining contract laborers from 
India and elsewhere. In that manner the island may one day 
again become a valuable possession, and meanwhile it is gratify- 
ing to know that the negro population, although inefficient for 
co-operative purposes essential to raise a country to any com- 
mercial standing, are by no means retrograding to barbarism." * 

From many other anti-slavery sources, from year to year, we 
have been assured that West India slavery had kept the negro 
population in the ignorance and degradation of their original bar- 
barism. If the truth was then told, the Governor may safely say 
that the population is not now " retrograding ;" and, if Mr. Sew- 
ell tells the truth, we cannot see how the great bulk of the people 
can sink to any lower depth of moral debasement than that in 
which he found them. 

On the question of the economical failure of emancipation, there 
can no longer remain the shadow of a doubt upon the minds of 
candid men. It is admitted by the Governor of Jamaica ; and his 
only hope of the ultimate recovery of the islands to a prosperous 
condition, is by substituting coolie labor for that of the negroes. 

We can give no more appropriate conclusion to this chapter, 
than to copy, from the London Times, a few paragraphs in rela- 
tion to emancipation and its effects in the West Indies : 

" There is no bliuking the truth, . . . and it must be spoken 
out loudly and energetically, despite the wild mockings of ' howling 
cant.' The freed West India slave will not till the soil for wages ; the 
free son of the ex-slave is as obstinate as his sire. He will not cul- 
tivate lands which he has not bought for his own use. Yams, man- 
goes, and plantains; these satisfy 7i('s wants; he does not care for yours. 
Cotton, sugar, coffee, and tobacco — he cares but little for them. And 
what matters it to him that the Englishman has sunk his thousands 
and tens of thousands on mills, machinery, and plants, which now totter 
on the languishing estate, that for years has only returned beggary and 
debt? He eats his yams, and sniggers at ' buckra.' 

" We know not why this should be, but it is so. The negro has been 
bought with a price — the price of English taxation and English toil. 
He has been redeemed from bondage by the sweat and travail of some 

* New York Independent, September 19, 1861, 



342 PULPIT POLITICS. 

millions of hard-working Englislimen. Tweuty millions of pounds ster- 
ling — one hundred millions ol" dollars — have been distilled from the brains 
and muscles of the free English laborer, of every degree, to fashion the West 
India negro into ' a free and independent laborer.' ' Free and indepen- 
dent' enough he has become, God knows ; but laborer he is not : and. so 
far as we can see, never will be. He will sing hymns and quote texts ; 
but honest, steady industry he not only detests, but despises. We wish 
heaven that some people in England — neither government people, nor 
parsons, nor clergymen, but some just-minded, honest-hearted, and 
clear-sighted men would go out to some of the islands, (say Jamaica, 
Dominica, or Antigua,) not for a mouth, or three months, but for a 
year — would watch the precious protege of English philanthropy, the 
free negro, in his daily habits ; would watch him as he lazily plants his* 
little squatting; would see him as he proudly rejects agricultural domes- 
tic services, or accepts it only at wages ludicrously disproportionate to 
the value of his work. We wish, too, they would watch him, with a 
hide thicker than that of a hippopotamus, and a body to which fervid 
heat is a comfort rather than an annoyance, as he droningly lounges 
over the prescribed task on which the intrepid Englishman, uninured 
to the burning sun, consumes his impatient energy, and too often sacri- 
fices his life. We wish they would go out and view the negro in all 
the blazonry of his idleness, his pride, his ingratitude, contemptuously 
sneering at the industry of that race which made him free, and then 
come home, and teach the memorable lesson of their experience to the 
fanatics who have perverted him into what he is." 

Taking, tlicn, the whole testimony on the subject — civil, social, 
moral, physical, economical, — and it is fully proved that West 
India emancipation, in its expected results, is a miserable failure. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

Section I. — Early Legislation on the Subject op Slavery. 

1. In 1787, The General AssExMbly Presbyterian Church 
IN North America, wliile yet acting under the title of the 
Synod op New York and Philadelphia, announced its views on 
slavery. Six years later, 1793, when the General Assembly had 
been fully organized, the action of 1787 was re-affirmed and made 
the rule of the Church upon the subject. It was as follows : 

" ' The Creator of the world having made of one flesh all the cdiil- 
dreu of men, it becomes them, as members of the same family, to con- 
sult and promote each others' happiness. It is more especially the 
duty of those who maintain the rights of humanity, and who acknowl- 
edge and teach the obligations of Christianity, to use such means as 
are in their power to extend the blessings of equal freedom to every 
part of the human race.' (1) 

" ' From a full conviction of these truths, and sensible that the 
rights of human nature are too well understood to admit of debate, 
overtured, that the Synod of New York and Philadelphia recommend, 
in the warmest terms, to every member of their body, and to all the 
churches and families under their care, to do every thing in their 
power, consistent with the rights of civil society, to promote the 
abolition of slavery, and the instruction of negroes, whether bond or 
free.' (2) 

"The Synod, taking into consideration the overture concerning 
slavery transmitted by the committee of Overtures last Saturday, 
came to the following judgment : — 

" ' The Synod of New York and Philadelphia do highly ai)prove 
of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in 
America, and the interest which many of the States have taken in 

(343) 



344 PULPIT POLITICS. 

promoting the abolition of slavery ; yet, inasmucli as men introduced 
from a servile state to a participation of all the privileges of civil 
society, without a proper education and without previous habits of 
industry, may be in many respects dangerous to the community, there- 
fore they earnestly recommend it to all the members belonging to 
their communion to give those persons, who are at present held in 
servitude, such good education as to prepare them for the better en- 
joyment of freedom: (3) and they moreover recommend that masters, 
wherever they find servants disposed to make a just improvement of 
the privilege, would give them a peculium, or grant them sufficient 
time, and sufficient means of procuring their own liberty at a moderate 
rate, that thereby they may be brought into society with those habits 
of industry that may render them useful citizens ; and, finally, they 
recommend it to all their people to use the most prudent measures, 
consistent with the interest and state of civil society, in the counties 
where they live, to procure eventually the final abolition of slavery 
in America.' " — Min. 1787, pp. 539-540. 

" The Assembly of 1815 declared ' that, although in some sections 
of our country, under certain circumstances, the transfer of slaves 
maybe unavoidable, yet they consider the buying and selling of slaves 
by way of traffic, and all undue severity in the management of them, 
as inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel. And they recommend it 
to the Presbyteries and Sessions under their care to make use of all 
prudent measures to prevent such shameful and unrighteous conduct.' 

" The Assembly of 1815 ' expressed their regret that the slavery of 
the Africans and of their descendants still continues in so many places, 
and even among those within the pale of the Church,' and called par- 
ticular attention to the action of 1795 with respect to the buying and 
selling of slaves. 

"In 1818, the Assembly unanimously adopted a report on this 
subject, prepared by Dr. Green, of Philadelphia, Dr. Baxter, of Vir- 
ginia, and Mr. Burgess, of Ohio, of which the following is a part : — 

" ' We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human 
race by another as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred 
rights of human nature, as utterly inconsistent with the law of God, 
which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and as totally 
irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the Gospel of Christ, 
which enjoins that "all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them." Slavery creates a paradox in the 
moral system : it exhibits rational, accountable and immortal beings 



PKESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 345 

in such circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral 
action. It exhibits them as dependent on the will of others whether 
they shall receive religious instruction ; whether they shall know and 
worship the true God ; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the 
gospel ; whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the endear- 
ments of husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and 
friends ; whether they shall preserve their chastity and purity, or 
regard the dictates of justice and humanity. Such are some of the 
consequences of slavery, — consequences not imaginary, but which 
connect themselves with its very existence. The evils to which the 
slave is always exposed often take place in fact, and in their very 
worst degree and form ; and, where all of them do not take place, — as 
we rejoice to say that in many instances, through the influence of the 
principles of humanity and religion on the minds of masters, they do 
not, — still, the slave is deprived of his natural right, degraded as a 
human being, and exposed to the danger of passing into the hands of 
a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries 
which inhumanity and avarice may suggest. 

" From this view of the consequences resulting from the practice 
into which Christian people have most inconsistently fallen of enslav- 
ing a portion of their brethren of mankind, — for God hath made of 
one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, — it is 
manifestly the duty of all Christians who enjoy the light of the 
present day, when the inconsistency of slavery both with the dictates 
of humanity and religion has been demonstrated and is generally seen 
and acknowledged, to use their honest, earnest and unwearied en- 
deavors to correct the errors of former times, and as speedily as 
possible to efi"ace this blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the 
complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom, and, if possible, 
throughout the world.' 

" The Assembly also recommended ' to all the members of our 
religious denomination, not only to permit, but to ftxcilitate and 
encourage, the instruction of their slaves in the principles and duties 
of the Christian religion ;' and added, ' We enjoin it on all church 
sessions and Presbyteries under the care of this Assembly to dis- 
countenance, and, as far as possible, to prevent, all cruelty of whatever 
kind, in the treatment of slaves, especially the cruelty of separating 
husband and wife, parents and children, and that which consists in 
selling slaves to those who will either themselves deprive these un- 
happy people of the blessings of the Gospel, or who will transport 



346 PULPIT POLITICS. 

them to places where the Gospel is not proclaimed or where it is 
forbidden to slaves to attend upon its institutions.' (4) 

" The foregoing 'testimonials on the subject of slavery were uni- 
versally acquiesced in by the Presbyterian Church up to the time 
of the division in 1838."* 

Section II. — The Legislation op the General Assembly, 

(0. S.,) AFTER THE DIVISION OP THE ChURCH. 

I. The following embraces the legislation of the 0. S. Gen- 
eral Assembly, after the division of the Church, in 1838, as 
published in the Assembly's Digest, issued by the Presbyterian 
Board of Publication, 1846. The subject having been from 
time to time, for a series of years, urged upon the Assembly, 
it was taken up in 1845, and the following paper adopted : 

" The committee to whom were referred the memorials on the 
subject of slavery, beg leave to submit the following report: 

(a.) " The memorialists may be divided into three classes, viz : 

" 1. Those who represent the system of slavery, as it exists in 
these United States, as a great evil, and pray this General Assembly 
to adopt measures for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves. 

" 2. Those which ask the Assembly to receive memorials on the 
subject of slavery, to allow a full discussion of it, and to enjoin upon 
the members of our Church, residing in States whose laws forbid the 
slaves being taught to read, to seek, by all lawful means, the repeal 
of those laws. 

" 3. Those which represent slavery as a moral evil, a heinous sin 
in the sight of God, calculated to bring upon the Church the curse 
of God, and calling for the exercise of discipline in the case of those 
who persist in maintaining or justifying the relation of master to 
slaves. 

(6.) " The question which is now unhappily agitating and dividing 
other branches of the Church, and which is pressed upon the atten- 
tion of the Assembly by one of the three classes of memorialists just 
named, is, whether the holding of slaves is, under all circumstances, 
a heinous sin, calling for the discipline of the Church. 

*■ The synopsis of the proceedings of the General Assembly, from 1815 to 
1818, are jjopied from the publication made by the N. S. General Assembly 
at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1857. 



PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY 347 

(c.) " The Church of Christ is a spiritual body, whose jurisdiction 
extends to the religious faith and moral conduct of her members. 
She can not legislate where Christ has not legislated, nor make 
terms of membership which he has not made. The question, there- 
fore, which this Assembly is called to decide, is this : Do the 
Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, without regard to cir- 
cumstances, is a sin, the renunciation of which should be made a 
condition of membership in the Church of Christ ? (5) 

(cZ) " It is impossible to answer this question in the affirmative, 
without contradicting some of the plainest declarations of the Word 
of God. That slavery existed in the days of Christ and his apostles 
is an admitted fact. That they did not denounce the relation itself 
as sinful, as inconsistent with Christianity ; that slaveholders were 
admitted to membership in the churches organized by the apostles ; 
that while they were required to treat their slaves with kindness, 
and as rational, accountable, immortal beings, and, if Christians, as 
brethren in the Lord, they were not commanded to emancipate them; 
that slaves were required to be ' obedient to their masters according 
to the flesh, with fear and trembling, with singleness of heart as unto 
Christ,' are facts which meet the eye of every reader of the New 
Testament. This Assembly can not, therefore, denounce the holding 
of slaves as necessarily a heinous and scandalous sin, calculated to 
bring upon the Church the curse of God, without charging the 
apostles of Christ with conniving at sin, introducing into the Church 
such sinners, and thus bringing upon them the curse of the Almighty. 

(e) "In so saying, however, the Assembly are not to be understood 
as denying that there is evil connected with slavery. Much less do 
they approve those defective and oppressive laws by which, in some 
of the States, it is regulated. Nor would they by any means coun- 
tenance the traffic in slaves for gain ; the separation of husbands and 
wives, parents and children, for the sake of ' filthy lucre,' or for the 
convenience of the master ; or cruel treatment of slaves, in any respect. 
Every Christian and philanthropist certainly should seek, by all peace- 
able and lawful means, the repeal of unjust and oppressive laws, and 
the amendment of such as are defective, so as to protect the slaves 
from cruel treatment by wicked men, and secure to them the right to 
receive religious instruction. 

(/) " Nor is the Assembly to be understood as countenancing the 
idea that masters may regard their servants as mere property, and 
not as human beings, rational, accountable, immortal. The Scriptures 



348 PULPIT POLITICS. 

prescribe not only the duties of servants, but masters also, warning 
the latter to discharge those duties, ' knowing that their Master is in 
heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him.' 

(g) " The Assembly intend simply to say, that since Christ and his 
inspired apostles did not make the holding of slaves a bar to com- 
munion, we, as a court of Christ, have no authority to do so ; since 
they did not attempt to remove it from the Church by legislation, we 
have no authority to legislate upon the subject. We feel further 
constrained to say, that however desirable it may be to ameliorate 
the condition of the slaves in the Southern and Western States, or to 
remove slavery from our country, these objects, we are fully per- 
suaded, can never be secured by ecclesiastical legislation. Much less 
can they be attained by those indiscriminate denunciations against 
slaveholders, without regard to their character or circumstances, 
which have to so great an extent characterized the movements of 
modern abolitionists, which, so far from removing the evils complained 
of, tend only to perpetuate and aggravate them. 

" The apostles of Christ sought to ameliorate the condition of 
slaves, not by denouncing and excommunicating their masters, but 
by teaching both masters and slaves the glorious doctrines of the 
Gospel, and enjoining upon each the discharge of their relative 
duties. Thus only can the Church of Christ, as such, now improve 
the condition of the slaves in our country. 

(Ji) " As to the extent of the evils involved in slavery, and the 
best methods of removing them, various opinions prevail, and neither 
the Scriptures nor our Constitution authorize this body to prescribe 
any particular course to be pursued by the churches under our care. 
The Assembly can not but rejoice, however, to learn that the minis- 
ters and churches in the slaveholding States are awake to a deeper 
sense of their obligation to extend to the slave population generally 
the means of grace, and many slaveholders not professedly religious 
favor this object. We earnestly exhort them to abound more and 
more in this good work. We would exhort every believing master 
to remember that his Master is also in heaven, and in view of all the 
circumstances in which he is placed, to act in the spirit of the golden 
rule : ' Whatsoever, ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
the same to them.' 

" In view of the above-stated principles and facts, 

'■'■Resolved, 1. That the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the United States was originally organized, and has since 



PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 349 

continvied the bond of union in the Church, upon the conceded prin- 
ciple that the existence of domestic slavery, under the circumstances 
in which it is found in the southern portion of the country, is no 
bar to Christian communion. 

" 2. That the petitions that ask the Assembly to make the holding 
of slaves in itself a matter of discipline, do virtually require this judi- 
catory to dissolve itself, and abandon the organization under which, 
by the Divine blessing, it has so long prospered. The tendency is 
evidently to separate the northern from the southern portion of the 
Church ; a result which every good citizen must deplore, as tending to 
the dissolution of the Union of our beloved country, and which every 
enlightened Christian will oppose as bringing about a ruinous and un- 
necessary schism between brethren who maintain a common faith. (6) 

"The yeas and nays being ordered, were — yeas, 168; nays, 13; ex- 
cused, 4. — 3Iinutes, 1845, page 16." 

Some agitation of the question of slavery was subsequently- 
produced, by petitions presented and by overtures from Presby- 
teries, but any additional legislation upon the subject has been 
deemed inexpedient by the Assembly. 

2. At the meeting of the General Assembly, (Old School,) in 
1861, after much excited discussion, the following resolutions 
■were passed : 

" Gratefully acknowledging the distinguished bounty and care of 
Almighty God toward this favored land, and also recognizing our 
obligation to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, 
this General Assembly adopt the following resolutions : 

"1. Resolved^ That in view of the present agitated and unhappy 
condition of this country, the first day of July next is set apart as a 
day of prayer throughout our bounds, and that on this day ministers 
and people are called on humbly to confess and bewail their national 
sins, and to offer our thanks to the Father of lights for his abundant 
and vindeserved goodness toward us as a nation, to seek his guidance 
and blessing upon our rulers and their counsels, as well as the assem- 
bled Congress of the United States, and to implore Him, in the name 
of Jesus Christ, the great High Priest of the Christian profession, to 
turn away His anger from us, and speedily restore to us the blessings 
of a safe and honorable peace. 

" 2. Ecsoked, That this General Assembly, in the spirit of that 



350 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Christian patriotism -which the Scriptures enjoin, and which has 
always characterized this Church, do hereby acknowledge and declare 
our obligations to promote and perpetuate, so far as in us lies, the 
integrity of these United States, and to strengthen, uphold and en- 
courage the Federal Government in the exercise of all its functions 
under' our noble Constitution, and to this Constitution, in all its pro- 
visions, requirements, and principles, we profess our unabated loyalty. 
And to avoid all misconception, the Assembly declares that by the 
terms ' Federal Government,' as here used, is not meant any particu- 
lar Administration, or the peculiar opinions of any political party, but 
that central Administration which being at any time appointed and in- 
augurated according to the terms prescribed in the Constitution of the 
United States, is the visible representative of our national existence." 

As we shall offer no extended remarks upon the proceedings 
of I86I5 by either of the General Assemblies, we append a re- 
sponse to that of the Old School Assembly by the Presbytery 
of Louisville, Kentucky : 

" Regarding the deliverances of the General Assembly not as mere 
expressions of opinion of an advisory council, to be quietly ignored 
if judged erroneous, but, on the contrary, as our standards teach, in the 
light of solemn enactments in the name of Christ, to be received with 
reverence, when in conformity with God's Word, or to be distinctly 
impugned and rejected, when opposed thereto, the Presbytery of 
Louisville, after duly considering the act of the late General Assem- 
bly touching the political allegiance of ministers and members of the 
Church, as found on p. 329, and in answer to protests, pp. 341 and 344, 
feels called upon in this solemn manner to testify against the danger- 
ous errors in doctrine involved in that action, and to repudiate the 
same as of no binding eflFect upon our ministers and churches. It 
appears, from the reports of Commissioners, and from the minutes, 
(compare p. 329 with p. 303), that this action was taken under con- 
straint, directly in opposition to the Assembly's own free and uncon- 
trolled judgment previously given against making any such deliv- 
erance ; that the pressure from without, from popular clamor, con- 
strained the Assembly to reverse its decisions. We feel, therefore, 
the less hesitancy in setting aside this deliverance on this account. 

"The action of the General Assembly on this subject involves these 
essential errors. 



PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 351 

" First, the assumption of power to determine questions of political 
allegiance, is directly contrary to the teachings of Christ and His 
Apostles, who uniformly enjoin obedience to Cassar as a Christian 
duty ; but abstain from determining as between the claims of rival 
Caesars to the allegiance of Christians. It is notoriously contrary to 
the great distinctive doctrine of the Church of Scotland, as attested 
by Martyrs, General Assemblies, and Confessions, ' that the power and 
policie ecclesiastical is distinct in its own nature from the civil 
power,' and that ' the two jurisdictions confounded, which God hath 
divided, directly tendeth to the wreck of all true religion.' It is 
directly in conflict with the corresponding declaration of our own 
confession — ' Synods and Councils are not to intermeddle with civil 
affairs,' etc. It is in disregard of the testimony of the fathers who 
formed the Constitution of the American Presbyterian Church, who 
taking the principle, secured for it recognition by the civil govern- 
ment in the law of Virginia and the Federal Constitution. 

" Second. In the answer to the protest against the resolution of 
the Assembly there are interpretations of Scripture which this Pres- 
bytery hold to be gravely erroneous, and also propositions concerning 
the relation of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, which we regard 
as dangerous, though we deem it inexpedient to cite them in detail or 
make deliverance in regard to them separately from the resolution 
of the Assembly. This Presbytery, therefore, utters this testimony 
against these errors of doctrine and principle, and solemnly rejects the 
action of the Assembly in the premises as unconstitutional and of no 
binding force upon us. 

" The Presbytery, believing that the kingdom of Christ is not to be 
limited by civil bounds, will cordially unite with all true and conserv- 
ative men in our beloved Church, North or South, in defending and 
preserving the purity, unity and prosperity of the Presbyterian 
Church in the United States of America." 

Section III. — Legislation of the General Assembly, New 



1. The folio wiug embraces the legislation of the New School 
General Assembly, after the division in 1888, as authorized to be 
published by the Assembly of 1857 : 

"In the year 184G, the General Assembly made a declaration on 
this subject, of which the following is the introductory paragraph : — 



352 PULPIT POLITICS. 

"'1. The system of slavery, as it exists in these United States, 
viewed either in the laws of the several States which sanction it, or 
in its actual operatioij and results in society, is intrinsically an un- 
righteous and oppressive system, and is opposed to the prescriptions 
of the law of God, to the spirit and precepts of the gospel, and to the 
best interests of humanity.' 

" In 1849, the Assembly explicitly re-affirmed the sentiments ex- 
pressed by the Assemblies of 1815, 1818, and 1846. In the year 1850, 
the General Assembly made the following declaration: — 'We exceed- 
ingly deplore the working of the whole system of slavery as it exists 
in our country and is interwoven with the political institutions of the 
slave-holding States, as fraught with many and gi-eat evils to the civil, 
political, and moral interests of those regions where it exists. 

" ' The holding of our fellow-men in the condition of slavery, ex- 
cept in those cases where it is unavoidable by the laws of the State, 
the obligations of guardianship, or the demands of humanity, is an 
offense in the proper import of that term as used in the Book of 
Discipline, chap. 1, sec. 3, and should be regarded and treated in the 
same manner as other offenses.' 

"Occupying the position in relation to this subject which the 
framers of our Constitution held at the first, and which our Church 
has always held, it is with deep grief that we now discover that a por- 
tion of the Church at the South has so far departed from the estab- 
lished doctrine of the Church in relation to slavery as to maintain 
that 'it is an ordinance of God,' and that the system of slavery ex- 
isting in these United States is scriptural and right. Against this 
new doctrine we feel constrained to bear our solemn testimony. It is 
at war with the whole spirit and tenor of the gospel of love and good 
will, as well as abhorrent to the conscience of the Christian world. 
We can have no sympathy or fellov/ship with it ; and we exhort all 
our people to eschew it as serious and pernicious error. 

" We are especially pained by the fact that the Presbytery of Lex- 
ington, South, have given official notice to us that a number of min- 
isters and ruling elders, as well as many church-members, in their 
connection, hold slaves 'from principle' and ' of choice,' ' believing it to 
be according to the Bible right,' and have, without any qualifying 
explanation, assumed the responsibility of sustaining such ministers, 
elders, and church-members in their position. We deem it our duty, in 
the exercise of our constitutional authority, 'to bear testimony against 
error in doctrine or immorality in practice in any Church, Presbytery, 



PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY 353 

or Synod,' to disaj^prove and earnestly condemn the position which 
has been thus assumed by the Presbytery of Lexington, South, as 
one which is opposed to the established convictions of the Presby- 
terian Church, and must operate to mar its peace and seriously hinder 
its prosperity, as well as bring reproach on our holy religion ; and we 
do hereby call on that Presbytery to review and rectify their position. 
Such doctrines and practice can not be permanently tolerated in the 
Presbyterian Church. May they speedily melt away under the illu- 
minating and mellowing influence of the Gospel and grace of God 
our Saviour ! 

" We do not, indeed, pronounce a sentence of indiscriminate con- 
demnation upon all our brethren who are unfortunately connected 
with the system of slavery. We tenderly sympatliize with all those 
who deplore the evil, and are honestly doing all in their power for 
the present well-being of their slaves and for their complete emanci- 
pation. We would aid, and not embarrass, such brethren. And yet, 
in the language of the General Assembly of 1818, we would ' earnestly 
warn them against unduly extending the plea of necessity, — against 
making it a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or a pretense 
for not using efforts that' are lawful and practicable to extinguish 
this evil.' (7) 

" In conclusion, the Assembly call the attention of the Publication 
Committee to this subject, and recommend the publication, in a con- 
venient form, of the testimony of the Presbyterian Church touching 
this subject, at the earliest practicable period. 

" The vote upon its adoption was by yeas and nays. 

"Adopted: yeas, 169; nays, 26; non liquet, 2." — M'umtes 1857, 
pp. 401-404." 

The decisions of the General Assembly being so decidedly 
anti-slavery in their character, the southern ministers felt them- 
selves constrained to withdraw from its jurisdiction, and that 
body now stands clear of all connection with slavery or slave- 
holders. 

2. At the meeting of the General Assembly (New School,) at 
Syracuse, New York, in 1861, the following resolutions, in rela- 
tion to the " state of the country," were passed unanimously : 

"The Committee to whom it was referred to inquire what action, 
by resolution or otherwise, it is meet for the Assembly to take in 
23 



354 PULPIT POLITICS. 

view of the present condition of our country, bog leave to recommend 
the following resolutions : 

" 1. Resolved, That inasmuch as the Presbyterian Church, in her 
past history, has frequently lifted up her voice against oppression, 
has shown herself a champion of constitutional liberty, as against 
both despotism and anarchy, throughout the civilized world, we 
should be recreant to our high trust were we to withhold our earnest 
protest against all such unlawful and treasonable acts. 

" 2. Resolved, That this Assembly and the Churches which it repre- 
sents, cherish au undiminished attachment to the great principles of 
civil and religious freedom on which our National Government is 
based ; under the influence of which our fathers prayed, and fought, 
and bled ; which issued in the establishment of our independence, 
and by the preservation of which we believe that the common inter- 
ests of evangelical religion and civil liberty will be most effectively 
sustained. 

•' 3. Resolved, That inasmuch as we believe, according to our Form 
of Government, that 'God, the Supreme Lord and King of all the 
world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be, under him, over the 
people, for his own glory and the public good, and to this end hath 
armed them with the power of the sword for the defense and en- 
couragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evil- 
doers,' — there is, in the judgment of the Assembly, no blood or 
treasure too precious to be devoted to the defense and perpetuity of 
the Government in all its constitutional authority. 

" 4. Resolved, That all those who are endeavoring to uphold the 
Constitution and maintain the Government of these United States in 
the exercise of its lawful prerogatives, are entitled to the sympathy 
and support of all Christians and law-abiding citizens. 

" 5. Resolved, That it be recommended to all our pastors and 
churches to be instant and fervent in prayer for the President of 
the United States, and all in authority under him, that wisdom and 
strength may be given them in the discharge of their arduous duties ; 
for the Congress of the United States; for the Lieutenant-General 
commanding the army-in-chief, and all our soldiers, that God may 
shield them from danger in the hour of peril, and, by the outpouring 
of the Holy Spirit upon the army and navy, renew and sanctify them, 
so that whether living or dying, they may be servants of the Most 
High. 

" 6. Resolved, That in the countenance which many ministers of 



PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 355 

the Gospel, and other professing Christians, are now giving to treason 
and rebellion against the Government, we have great occasion to 
mourn for the injury thus done to the kingdom of the Redeemer ; 
and that, though we have nothing to add to our former significant 
and explicit testimonies on the subject of slavery, we yet recommend 
our people to pray more fervently than ever for the removal of this 
evil, and all others, both social and political, which lie at the foun- 
dation of our present national difficulties. 

" 7. Resolved^ That a copy of these resolutions, signed by the offi- 
cers of the General Assembly, be forwarded to His Excellency, Abra- 
ham Lincoln, President of the United States." 

Section IV. — Remarks on the Ecclesiastical Legislation 
OP the General Assembly Presbyterians. 

Attention is called to a few points in the legislation of the 
General Assembly Presbyterians. 

(1) The Presbyterian ministers, at the time our republic was 
founded, had no belief that mere personal freedom possessed 
any great advantages to mankind. (2) This is apparent from 
the emphatic manner in which they urge the " instruction of the 
negroes, whether bond or free." And, besides, while their people 
were exhorted to do every thing in their power to promote the 
abolition of slavery, they were to act consistently with the rights 
of civil society. (3) While approving the general principles in 
favor of universal liberty, and the interest which many of the 
States had taken in promoting the abolition of slavery, they 
yet believed that men introduced from a servile state to a par- 
ticipation of all the privileges of civil society, without proper 
education, and without previous habits of industry, may be in 
many respects dangerous to the community ; and they earnestly 
recommended, therefore, to all the members belonging to their 
communion to give those persons, who were held in servitude, 
such good education as would prepare them for the better enjoy- 
ment of freedom. Such was the position of the Presbyterian 
Church in 1787. 

(4) While taking higher ground, in 1818, and more strongly 
urging the duty of promoting emancipation, the Assembly still 



356 PULPIT P0LITIC8. 

gave paramount importance to the question of securing to the 
colored people the blessings of the Gospel. The duty of imme- 
diate and unconditional emancipation was not urged. 

(5) In 1845, the Assembly (Old School,) had to meet the 
question whether slaveholding, without regard to circumstances, 
is a sin? This was a test question, designed to determine 
whether the General Assembly Presbyterians should take abo- 
lition ground, or maintain their former conservative position. 
They decided to maintain their old ground, and thus gave a re- 
buke to the abolition members of the Church, who had kept up 
the agitation of the slavery question ; at the same time, however, 
the Assembly expressed the opinion, that the abuses of the rela- 
tion of master and slave were suitable subjects for discipline, 
and called for action on the part of their people in applying the 
proper remedy. The Assembly further expressed the opinion, 
that it is only by the influence of the Gospel upon both masters 
and slaves, and the proper discharge of the relative duties of 
each to the other, that the condition of the slaves can be im- 
proved. 

(6) But there is here one important declaration that must not 
be overlooked. The Assembly give it as their deliberate judg- 
ment, that the tendency of the abolition movements, by agitating 
the slavery question in the Church, was to promote the dissolu- 
tion of the Union. Alas, this fear was but too well founded ! 

(7) It will be seen, that the action of the Assembly, (New 
School) after the separation in 1838, was more anti-slavery in 
its character than that of the Old School. While, however, it 
has been considered at the South as bearing the abolition stamp, 
we believe the Assembly itself did not contemplate taking aboli- 
tion grounds. 

The legislation here presented affords no adequate idea of 
the excitements which preceded and accompanied iL The docu- 
ments going out to the public after 1830, are only an embodi- 
ment of the conservative element existing within the bosom of 
the Church. We refer especially to the Old School Assembly. 
Had nothing else appeared but the resolutions agreed upon, 
there would have been no grounds for alarm at the South, that 



PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND SLAVERY. 357 

the Presbyterians Nortli were determined upon the overthrow of 
slavery. But, unfortunately, the violent men found means and 
ways of putting into circulation their high-toned abolition senti- 
ments ; and conservative men, taking no steps to counteract the 
effects of such productions, allowed them full sway in creating a 
public opinion at the South that was wholly unsupported by the 
real facts in the case. In this matter conservative men greatly 
erred. They should never have yielded to the abolition storm ; 
but have spoken out boldly in reprobation of the fanaticism that 
has worked out its ruinous consequences upon both Church and 
State. There has no good, but much ill, resulted from the 
ecclesiastical legislation of the Presbyterian General Assemblies 
on the subject of slavery. This must be the conclusion of every 
right-minded Christian. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SCOTTISH AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 

The Churches classed under this head are the Reformed Pres- 
byterian Synod, the Associate Synod, the Associate Reformed 
Synod of the West, and the United Presbyterian General As- 
sembly. 

Section I. — The Legislation of the Associate Synod of 
North America on Slavery. 

This Church, originally, was an off-shoot of the Seccders in 
Scotland. The subject of slavery was agitated by the mother 
Church as early as 1788. One of the original Presbyteries of 
the Associate Church in the United States had its location in 
Kentucky, and, as early as the year 1808, sent up an address to 
the Presbytery of Pennsylvania, asking that a warning might be 
issued against the sin of slaveholding. With this request the 
Presbytery complied, and in their -warning declare slaveholding 
to be a moral evil and unjustifiable. Another memorial, of a 
similar character, was sent to the Synod the same year, 1808, 
from Green County, Ohio, asking ecclesiastical action for the 
exclusion of slaveholders from the communion of the Church. 
This led, in the end, to the adoption of an act, in 1811, which 
reads as follows : 

" 1. That it is a moral evil to hold negroes or their children in 
perpetual slavery ; or to claim the right of buying or selling them ; 
or of bequeathing them as transferable property. 

" 2. That all persons belonging to our communion, having slaves 
in possession, be directed to set them at liberty, unless prohibited 
from doing so by the civil law ; and that in those States where the 
(358) 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 359 

liberation of the slaves is rendered impracticable by the existing 
laws, it is the duty of holders of slaves to treat them with as much 
justice as if they were liberated ; to give them suitable food and 
clothing; to have them taught to read, and instructed in the princi- 
ples of religion; and, when their services justly deserve it, to give 
them additional compensation. 

" 3. That those slaveholders who refuse to renounce the above 
claim, and to treat their slaves in the manner now specified, are un- 
worthy of being admitted into, or retained in, the fellowship of the 
Church of Christ. 

" 4. That it may be lawful for persons in our communion to pur- 
chase negroes from those who are holding them in absolute and 
perpetual slavery, with a view to retain them in their service until 
they are recompensed for the money laid out in the purchase of the 
said slaves; provided it be done with the consent of the negroes 
themselves, and that they be treated, in the meantime, according to 
the second of these regulations. 

" 5. That it is the duty of Sessions to see that the above regula- 
tions be faithfully observed ; but that, before they be acted upon in 
any congregation where the application of them is requisite, care 
shall be taken to have the people of that congregation not only ap- 
prised of these regulations, but instructed concerning the moral evil 
of the slaveholding here condemned." 

The Synod, at this period, was composed of Presbyteries whose 
jurisdictions extended over the States of Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as throughout the 
Northern States. The provisions of the act of 1811 not being 
complied with, the Synod, after having had the subject before 
them for a number of years, at another meeting, in 1831, passed 
a more stringent act, by which all slaveholders were forthwith 
excluded from her communion. The act of 1831 is as follows : 

'■'■Resolved, That as slavery is clearly condemned by the law of God, 
a,nd has been long since judicia;ly declared to be a moral evil by this 
Church, no member thereof shall, from and after this date, be allowed 
to hold a human being in the character or condition of a slave. 

^^ Resolved, That this Synod do hereby order all its subordinate judi- 
catories to proceed forthwith to carry into execution the intention of 
the foregoing resolution, by requiring those church-members under 



360 PULPIT POLITICS. 

their immediate inspection, who may be possessed of slaves, to relin- 
quish their unjust claims, and release those whom they may have 
heretofore considered as their property. 

'^'^ Resolved, That if any member or members of this Church, in order 
to evade this act, shall sell any of their slaves, or make a transfer of 
them, so as to retain the proceeds of their services, or the price of 
their sale, or in any other way evade the provisions of this act, they 
shall be subject to the censures of the Church. 

'^Resolved, Further, that where an individual is found who has 
spent so much of his or her strength in the service of another as to 
be disqualified from providing for his or her own support, the master 
in such a ease, is to be held responsible for the comfortable mainten 
ance of said servants." 

Then follows a list of directions which the Synod recommends 
to be observed in carrying out the foregoing resolutions. It 
may be remarked here, also, that a protest, signed by six mem- 
bers of the Synod, was oflFered, and answered by a committee 
appointed for that purpose. 

A few years previous to the date of this act, as appears from 
the Minutes of the Synod for 1824, the Associate Presbyterian 
Church had under its care nmety-one congregations, settled and 
vacant, of which kventy-eight were in the slave States, and dis- 
tributed as follows : South Carolina, eleven, North Carolina, ten^ 
Tennessee, tivo, Virginia, five. 

In 1840, the Synod addressed a letter to the people under 
their inspection in the Presbytery of the Carolinas, in which 
" some allowance was made for those who might not be able to 
effect the emancipation of their slaves, provided they would 
agree to what was called a moral emancipation. This letter, 
however, was so far from conciliating the feelings of Southern 
slaveholders, that a mob of them visited with Lynch-law the 
minister* who was appointed to be the bearer of it, and tliat, 
too, while he was engaged with a congregation in the public 
worship of God. The effect of these proceedings was to purge 
the Church of the sin of slaveholding, and, at the same time, en- 
tirely extinguishing the Associate Presbytery of the Carolinas." 

* Rev. Mr. Kendall, now of Oregon. 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 361 

" In 1845, in compliance witli the purport of various memorials, 
the Synod addressed a pastoral letter warning their people against the 
sin of voting for immoral characters. The same subject was brought 
before the Synod again in 1853, and a report was adopted in which 
the great iniquity of voting for wicked men is pointed out, and minis- 
ters are particularly enjoined to instruct their people in reference to 
this matter, and to warn them against being partakers in other men's 
sins, by exalting vile men to high places. (1) 

"The course pursued by the government for promoting the cause 
of slavery, and the outrages perpetrated by the friends of that system, 
were regarded by the Synod of 185G as loudly calling for some action. 
A report was accordingly adopted, condemning, in very pointed terms, 
1st. Slavery itself; 2d. The Fugitive Slave Law; 3d. The gross and 
brutal attack on Senator Sumner ; 4th. The outrages in Kansas. This 
report the clerk of Synod was directed to forward to the President 
of the United States, and to each House of Congress." 

The Associate Synod no longer exists as a distinct body, but 
has become merged in the United Presbyterian Church, by a 
union with the Associate Reformed Church. 

The foregoing facts are taken from the Minutes of the Associate 
Synod, and from the Church 3Iemorial, a work recently issued, 
under the patronage of the United Presbyterian Church, and 
embracing an historical sketch of the two bodies which united in 
the formation of this Church- 

Section II. — The Legislation of the Associate Reformed 
Synod of the West on Slavery. 

This Church, like the Associate Church, was, originally, the 
offspring of the Scotch Seceders. Its action on slavery is 
quoted mainly from the Church Memorial, and embraces, sub- 
stantially, its proceedings down to the time of its being merged 
in the United Presbyterian Church. Its action, like that of its 
kindred churches, resulted in excluding it from all the slavehold- 
ing States, excepting a congregation in St. Louis. The legisla- 
tion of this Church on slavery was as follows : 

"At an early period in its history, anxious inquiry was made as to 
the course that should be pursued in regard to this system ; and 



362 PULPIT POLITICS. 

extending, as the body then did. into slaveholding territories, it was 
a practical question of grave monaent. At different meetings of the 
General Synod, the subject was discussed, and committees were ap- 
pointed to prepare statements of the Synod's views, but from various 
causes, nothing was effectually done during the existence of that 
body.* 

" At the meeting of the Synod of the West, at Chillicothe, Ohio, 
May, 1826, the subject came formally up, in a memorial from the 
congregation of Hopewell, in the first Presbytery of Ohio, and a 
series of discussions and acts were entered upon, which resulted in 
the adoption, at the meeting in Chillicothe again in 1830, of the 
following resolutions, which, with some modifications and explana 
tions that we shall append in foot-notes, contains the final action of 
that portion of the Church : 

" 1. Resolved, That the religion of Jesus Christ requires that in- 
voluntary slavery should be removed from the Church as soon as 
opportunity in the providence of God is offered to slave-owners for 
the liberation of their slaves. 

" 2. Resolved, That when there are no regulations of the State to 
prohibit it; when provision can be made for the support of the 
fteedmen ; when they can be placed in circumstances to support the 
rank, enjoy the rights, and discharge the duties of freemen, it shall 
be considered that such an opportunity is afforded in the providence 
of God.f 

" 3. Resolved, That the Synod will, as it hereby does, recommend it 
to all its members to aid in placing the slaves which are within the 
jurisdiction of this Synod in the possession of their rights as freemen ; 
and that it be recommended to them especially to take up annual 
collections to aid the funds of the American Society for colonizing 
the free people of color in the United States. J 

* This Church was originally composed of three subordinate Synods — the 
Synod of the South, of New York, and of the "West — represented in a General 
Synod. 

t At a meeting in 1838, the Synod passed the following in reference to this 
resolution : 

" Resolved, that an opportunity in the providence of God shall be considered as 
afforded when the master c.nn emancipate his slave, and place him in fircum- 
stances where he shall not be liable to be immediately sold into bondage." 

X In conseq lence of a memorial from Kobinson Eun congregation, the Synod 
at its meeting in 1839, adapted the following iu regard to this resolution; 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 363 

" 4. Resolved, That the practice of buying or selling slaves for gain, 
by any member of this Church, be disapproved; and that slave-owners 
under the jurisdiction of this Synod be, as they hereby are, forbidden 
all aggravations of the evils of slavery, by violating the ties of nature, 
the separation of husband and wife, parents and children, or by cruel 
or unkind treatment; and that they shall not only treat them well, 
but also instruct them in useful knowledge and the principles of the 
Christian religion, and in all respects treat them as enjoined upon 
masters toward their servants by the apostles of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

" Two years afterward, in 1832, the Synod issued a Letter of Warn- 
ing, or an Occasional Testimony, in which these resolutions were 
quoted, and the following extracts will show in what sense they were 
intended and understood as the law of the Church : ' Now, brethren, 
it is expected that the foregoing resolutions will not be as a dead 
letter, but be respected and reduced to practice. It is expected that 
Sessions and Presbyteries will see them enforced. It is expected that 
slave-owners in the Church will make conscience of seeking and im- 
proving opportunities, and the very first which offer, of liberating 
their slaves. It is expected that in the meantime they will give sat- 
isfactory evidence to their respective Sessions that they do consider 
slavery a moral evil, that they do truly desire to get rid of it as soon 
as they can, and that it is their intention to embrace the first oppor- 
tunity which God in his providence shall give them for so doing. 
And it is expected of Sessions that they will require this of slave- 
owning church-members or applicants,' etc. (2) 

"These acts of the Synod of the West remain unchanged. They 
were carried into the General Synod of the West, were recognized in 
the union with the Synod of New York, and are strikingly similar to 
the Testimony on this subject in the basis of union with the Associate 
Church in May last." 

The Letter of Warning, referred to above, among the many 

"As there are two conflicting Societies operating in the community — the Col- 
onization and the Anti-Slavery Societies — and as this Synod has recommended 
the former to the patronage of the Churclies under its care; and as it is desir- 
able the Synod should keep clear of this excitement; and as the Church should 
not be involved by the operation of bodies over which it has no control, there- 
Core, 

'■^Resolved, That this Synod withdraws the recommendation formerly given to 
tho Colonization Society." 



3G4 puLriT POLITICS. 

topics discussed, embraced the following paragraph, in "which the 
Synod undertakes to interpret the dispensations of Providence : 

"God is visiting our land with one of his 'sore judgments' — th*" 
pestilence [Asiatic cholera]. This visitation is a call from the Su- 
preme Ruler to our nation, to consider their ways and repent ; and 
when such a call is given, it is the duty of the Church, whose business 
it is to sustain the cause of God and righteousness on earth, to point 
out those national sins for which the righteous Lord inflicts national 
judgments. Now, one prominent national sin, on account of which — 
as well as on account of Sabbath-breaking, intemperance, and evil- 
speaking — the Lord is visiting our country, is slavery." 

Section III. — The Legislation of the Reformed Presby 
TERiAN Church on Slavery. 

1. The following statement of the course of policy pursued by 
this Church, was supplied to the author of the Hand-Book on 
the Slavery Question, by a venerable father in the ministry 
of that Church. Its legislation on the question of slavery, as 
in the case of the two Churches before noticed, excluded its 
ministers almost entirely from all the slaveholding States — a 
few members only, for many years, still adhering to it, in two 
or three places South : 

" This Church, while recognizing the legitimacy of the relation of 
master and servant, has always borne testimony against slavery, as 
defined in the slave laws of the States, and colonies before they were 
States, of our country. But until the latter part of the eighteenth 
century that testimony was not formally judicative. It was given in 
the usual course of the ministrations of the sanctuary. At that time, 
however, (the latter part of the last century,) the subject was judi- 
cially acted on, and slavery, as defined by the slave laws of slave- 
holding States and their courts, was formally condemned as a personal, 
domestic, political, and moral evil; and slaveholding, and the appro- 
bation of it, as thus defined, excluded from the sacramental fellowship 
of the Church. During the present century, no slaveholder, or advo- 
cate of slavery on the chattel principle, has been admitted to the 
ecclesiastical connection of this department of the Church. Such is 
the position and such the conduct pf this portion of the Presbyterian 
family on this subject. 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 365 

" It ought to be remarked, perhaps, that this body has never de- 
nounced, as immoral per se, the right of property by one person in 
another, nor yet involuntary service as vprong. These, under legiti- 
mate regulations, may belong to the nearest relations of life. These 
do not constitute the slavery of the slave laws of the country. To 
confound them with it may perplex, but can not enlighten. 

" In reference to the influence of this measure upon the prosperity 
of the body, it may be stated, that, at the time, it generally secured 
the disapprobation of other religious bodies, as indiscreet, if not 
wrong. It occasioned the loss of those, as members, who refused to 
comply with that measure, they finding an open door for their recep- 
tion in other ecclesiastical connections. Upon our organizations in 
the slave States it has not been propitious. While at no time, on 
the part of the public functionaries of the States, was there any dis- 
position to bear hardly or unkindly on Reformed Presbyterians, they 
being uniformly recognized as ardent patriots and good citizens ; yet 
the existence, maintenance, and general operation of the slave laws 
were, in many respects, unpleasant to them. Hence the great body 
of this denomination, with their ministers, were induced to seek a 
more eligible home in the free States. This step affected the locality 
rather than the number of professors. 

" But to the picture there is another side, and of it the following 
may be said : 

" The Church is free, and for nearly half a century has been free, 
from the malign influence that goes to degrade the moral and immor- 
tal being to the class of chattels, made legally incapable of personal 
relations and rights. The self-denial evinced, both in the North and 
the South, in the ready emancipation of slaves by those who entered 
into the views of the Church, had a happy influence upon others in 
many respects. Occasion was given to numbers of the consistent 
friends of rational freedom, upon examination, to enter into the fel- 
lowship of the Church. This department of Zion is now, and has 
long been, exempt from that unhappy state of agitation which at 
present so extensively disturbs the peace of others. With us it is 
not a novelty, but a long settled matter. 

" It may not be out of place to remark, that while this was the de- 
partment of the Presbyterian family that first took such ground and 
action on the subject of slavery, there was no rashness in the measure. 
The degrading and cruel chattel principle was repudiated, and made 
a subject of ecclesiastical, corrective discipline. The legitimate rela- 



3G() PULPIT POLITICS. 

tion of master and servant remained untouched. Provision was made 
that the aged, the infirm, and minors be taken care of; and, while the 
relation of superior and subordinate remained, the subordinate was 
secured in all personal rights which the condition of the individual 
morally required or admitted. In this case there was no social con- 
vulsion." 

The division in this Church, some years since, into what the 
public designated as Old Side and New Side, in no way affected 
the views of the parties on the question of slavery. 

2. In 1859, the 0. S. Synod, at its meeting in Allegheny City, 
Pennsylvania, gave the following deliverance : 

" That slavery, the holding of men as property, to be bought and 
sold as ' chattels personal,' is a malum per se, (an evil in itself,) 
wholly at variance with the Divine word. 

" That we are more firmly convinced that the Constitution of the 
United States is the great stronghold and bulwark of this system of 
violence and oppression, and that, therefore, we will continue to tes- 
tify against it, refuse to swear the oath of allegiance to it, or obey its 
unholy requirements. (3) 

" That those who attempt to defend slavery from the Bible, to im- 
pose upon the community the enormous lie that God, by his word, 
sanctions a sin so heinous, are guilty of one of the worst and most 
dangerous forms of infidelity exhibited in this age and nation. That 
we will labor and pray for the emancipation of the captive, the 
coming of that day when God will break every yoke, undo the heavy 
burden, and let the oppressed go free." 



gress, reported : " That they had prepared a petition which asks 
Congress to make such alterations in the Constitution of the 
United States, that it will acknowledge the being and autliority 
of God, an acknowledgment of submission to the authority of the 
Church, (4) to recognize the paramount obligation of God's law, 
and that it may be rendered, in all its principles and provisions, 
adverse to any form of slavery within the national limits." 

3. The General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, 
(N. S.,) at its session of 1861, adopted the following propositions 
on the " state of the country :" 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 367 

" 1. Whatever may be tlie incidental causes of the present war, 
there can be no doubt that the existence of slavery, and the desire to 
continue it, is the fundamental cause. 

" 2. Both the liglit of nature and the plain teachings of the revealed 
Word of God demonstrate that there are occasions in which war is not 
only lawful, but dutiftil ; and that we believe the present war is one 
which is justifiable in behalf of our National Grovernment, and which 
every Christian and patriot should be willing to sustain. 

"3. The great object of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is to 
promote glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good- 
will to man ; the fruit of the Spirit is peace, the duty of every Chris- 
tian to seek for the things which make for peace, and which will turn 
wars into peace. 

" 4. There is reason to believe that the people of the slaveholding 
States of our confederacy misapprehend the principles and views of 
the people of the nou-slaveholding States. It is a mistake to suppose 
that there is any intention to interfere with slavery in the States 
where it exists, by any other means than such as the right of free 
discussion of any subject of interest in politics or religion, properly 
conducted, will sanction ; to suppose that there is a desire that the 
slaves should rise up in insurrection, murder their owners, and devas- 
tate their homes; that there is any plan to degrade or subjugate the 
South, and deprive its inhabitants of the equal rights which the Con- 
stitution of our country secures to all. (5) 

" 5. Notwithstanding, it is to be distinctly understood that the 
people of the North, with few exceptions, regard slavery as a great 
moral and political evil, and do desire its peaceable extinction. 

" ^. Slavery is the volcanic element in our political system ; were 
it removed, there is no reason to apprehend any dissolution of the 
brotherly covenant which has bound our sovereign States together ; 
and the highest welfare of the nation requires that measures should 
be taken for its removal. The providence of God is now most sol- 
emnly and distinctly upon us as a nation to devise some plan for this 
object. (6) 

*' 7. There are sins in regard to this, as well as other things, with 
us as well as our brethren of the South. We feel bound to bear with 
them the burden and loss which may be required in the emancipation 
of the slave. We believe there are many in the South who recognize 
the evil of slavery, and would willingly cooperate for its removal. 

" 8. It behooves Christians of every name, whether in the North or 



368 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the South, under the example of our Saviour and the guidance of his 
Spirit and his Word, to unite for this purpose." 

4. Extracts from the proceedings of the Reformed Presbytery of 
Pittsburgh, (iV. S.) on the State of the Country. 

At a meeting of the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Reformed 
Presbyterian Church, held at Centreville, Butler Co., Pa., on 
Wednesday, the 1st of October, 1861, the Rev. Dr. Douglas, of 
Pittsburgh, offered the following resolutions on the " state of the 
country," which, after speeches of the intensest patriotism by the 
mover. Rev. John Nevin, the seconder, Revs. George Scott, John 
M'Millan, and J. F. Hill, were iinanimously adopted: 

"Whereas, a number of states in the Southern part of our country 
are now in a state of armed rebellion against the government of the 
United States, menacing its independence and perpetuation, and there- 
by endangering our peace, happiness, and prosperity; and whereas, 
it is proper for us as a Presbytery, when national affairs assume a 
moral and religious aspect, to give a judicial declaration in regard to 
them, for the guidance and information of the people committed to 
our charge, therefore, 

'■'■Resolved, That whatever may be its present complications, Ne- 
gro Slavery is the primary cause of the war which is now dis- 
tracting our country — prostrating its commercial and every other 
interest. 

^'■Resolved, That this war is the infliction of the just punishment 
of an offended God upon our country and our government, for their 
aiding and abetting the nefarious sin of human bondage. 

" Resolved, That American slavery is radically and essentially wrong, 
and 'no possible contingency can ever make it right;' that it involves 
the horrid crimes of robbery, oppression, concubinage, and murder, 
and stands alike in antagonism to the laws of humanity and the laws 
of God. 

" Resolved, That we pledge our support to the government so long 
as it conducts the present war on the principle of undying hostility 
to slavery, believing, as we do, that as long as slavery exists we never 
can have peace 

" Resolved, That, in times of rebellion, military authority takes the 
place of all municipal institutions — 'slavery among the rest.' That 
tho President of the United States, taking advantage of the emergen- 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 3G9 

cies of war, ' has power to order the universal emancipation of the 
slaves ' held by the rebels, and that in doing so \e would be acting 
for the 'general welfare,' in accordance with the provisions of the 
Constitution; that military commanders possess the same power in 
their respective districts, and that we deprecate any Executive or 
official interference that would go to nullify any such proclamations 
which have been, or yet may be made. (7) 

Section IV. — The Legislation of the United Presbyterian 
Church of North America on Slavery. 

1. This Church was organized in the year 1858, by the Union 
of the Associate and the Associate Reformed Churches. This 
Church, at its organization, made the following declaration of 
principles on the subject of slavery : 

" We declare, That slaveholding — that is, the holding of unoffending 
human beings in involuntary bondage, and considering and treating 
them as property, and subject to be bought and sold — is a violation 
of the law of God, and contrary both to the letter and spirit of Chris- 
tianity. 

"Argument and Illustration. — This declaration is in accordance 
with the Confession of Faith, chap, iv, sec. 2, Larger Catechism, 
ques. 142. 

" That slaveholding is, as we have declared it to be, a violation of 
the law of Cod, will appear from the following considerations : 

" 1. The Word of God represents the whole human family as possess- 
ing a common nature. The slave is a man — as really and truly a man 
as the most gifted and illustrious of the human family. He is a child 
of Adam, who was made in the image and after the likeness of God, 
(Gen. i : 26.) He is of ' one blood ' with him who holds him in bon- 
dage, (Acts xvii : 26.) This being the case, his natural rights must be 
the same as those of any other. If man possesses, by the law of 
his creation, any natural and inalienable right, that right must be in- 
consistent with the condition of a person who is considered and treated 
as property, subject to be bought and sold. Slaveholding, then, is at 
war with humanity. 

" 2. The word of God, in the grant of dominion which it makes, 
restrains the power of man thus to treat his fellow man. He has, by 
the authority of God, his Creator, dominion over all the lower crea- 
tures, (Gen. i : 26.) The possession of such a dominion by a person 
24 



370 PULPIT POLITICS. 

is, in its very nature, inconsistent with his condition as a slave — i 
person wLo is himself considered and treated as property. While 
therefore, he is held in this condition, the grant of his Creator is 
rendered a nullity. Nor is this all : while this grant of dominion 
secures to the slave his right to liberty, it interdicts, by the clearest 
implication, the assumption of that right which the slaveholder claims. 
The grant of his Creator gives him dominion over the lower creatures. 
These he may make his property; thus far his dominion as owner 
extends, but no farther. Slavery, however, assumes this power. It 
reduces to the condition of property him who, by divine right, is lord 
of all. (Ps. viii : 6.) 

"3. The law of God recognizes the right of all men to use the 
powers of body and mind which their Creator has given them, in the 
pursuit of happiness. It sanctions labor with a view to their support, 
(Gen. ii : 15 ; iii : 23; 1 Thess. iv : 11 ; 2 Thess. iii : 10-12.) But slav- 
ery, while it dooms its victims to toil, lays its hand upon the fruits 
of that toil, and appropriates it to him who has not performed the 
labor. It thus takes away from man that incentive to labor which 
the Creator hae given to him, by giving to him a right to its fruits 
The slave, being himself the property of another, can own nothing, 
and, of course, can acquire nothing. 

" 4. The law of God enjoins it upon masters to give to their serv- 
ants 'that which is just and equal,' (Col. iv : 1.) The slaveholder 
gives nothing to his slave, as a right acquired hy labor. What he 
gives as a slaveholder, has a reference merely to the support of his 
slave, that he may thereby be qualified to labor. The fruits of that 
labor he appropriates to himself. He therefore violates the law of 
justice enjoined upon the master, and exposes himself to the wo pro- 
nounced against him who ' useth his neighbor's services without wages, 
and giveth him not for his loorJc,^ (Jer. xxii : 13.) Neither docs he 
give his servant that which is ' equal.' There is no proportion be- 
tween the labor performed by the slave and what he receives from 
his master. The slave may be hired out to another, by whom he is 
fed and clothed ; but the owner of the slave receives from the man 
to whom he is hired the wages. Nor is there any proportion be- 
tween what the slave receives and what another receives who performs 
the same amount of work. He therefore violates the principle of 
equality, which he is bound by the law of God to observe. 

" 5. The law of God recognizes marriage as the right of all, (Heb. 
xiii : 4.) It requires the parties to dwell together, (1 Pet. iii : 7,) and 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 371 

makes the relation indissoluble by man, (Gen. ii : 24 ; Matt, xix : 6.) 
But the right which the slaveholder claims to his slave as his property, 
subject to be bought and sold, is in direct conflict with these divine 
requisitions. He may, by the exercise of his right as a slaveholder, 
forbid his marriage, or place him in circumstances in which he can- 
not enjoy this divine right ; or if married, he may, at will entirely 
and forever separate the parties. The laws which govern and control 
property imply all this. 

" 6. The law of God requires parents to bring up their children in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord, (Eph. vi : 4.) The slave- 
holder, in virtue of the relation which he sustains, and by the right 
of ownership which he claims, may not only interfere with the govern- 
ment of the parent over his children, but entirely and forever separate 
them from each other. 

"7. The law of God requires every man to search the Scriptures, 
(John V : 39.) The right of the slaveholder interferes with this 
The laws which govern all property necessarily secure to him the 
right of prohibiting his slave from doing anything which may operate 
against the attainment of the end for which this species of property, 
in common with all others, is held — his own gain. 

"8. The law of God forbids man-stealing (Deut. xxiv: 7; 1 Tim, i: 
9, 10.) In this the alleged right of one man to make merchandize 
of his fellow-man must have originated. As the fountain is corrupt 
the stream can not be pure. 

" The foregoing considerations clearly show this relation to be, as 
we have declared it to be, in violation of the law of God. 

"We have also declared it to be contrary both to the letter and 
spirit of Christianity. What says the Author of Christianity? He 
says : ' All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to them," (Matt, vii : 12.) There is no slaveholder who 
would not resist being made a slave, and who would not feel an irre- 
pressible conviction that a wrong had been done him. This being 
^;he case, he is bound, by this express precept of the Saviour, to break 
the yoke, and let the oppressed go free, (1 Cor. vii : 21 ; Isa. Iviii : 6.) 
And what is the spirit of Christianity? It is surely love, (Rom. xiii : 
10 ; 1 John iv : 20, 21 ; Luke x : 27-37.) Is not, however, the reduc- 
tion of a fellow-being (he may be a brother in Christ,) to the condition 
of a piece of property, liable to be bought and sold, in violation of 
this holy and divine principle ? Who, that is not a stranger to the 
impulses of a Christian's heart, will deny it? 



372 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" We have, therefore, in the law of Grod, and in the letter and spirit 
of Christianity, abundant reasons for testifying against slaveholding 
as a sin, and consequently a disqualification for membership in the 
Church of Christ. It is the relation itself which we have examined 
in the light of Scripture, and which we have found to be so inconsist- 
ent with it, and not the many cruel laws which blacken the statute 
books of the slaveholding States, and the many gross and fearful evils 
that result from this relation. A consideration, however, of these 
laws and evils, which everywhere attend it, can not fail to impress 
the mind with a sense of the inherent wickedness of the system." (8) 

2. This body, at its meeting in May, 1861, adopted a report 
and resolutions, on the " state of the country," from which we 
extract the following : 

" Our beloved country is in a very deplorable condition. War is 
upon us, fraternal war, attended generally with greater ferocity and 
destructiveness than other wars. But, in God's great mercy to us, we 
are united among ourselves ; and, having able leaders and boundless 
resources, peace and prosperity will, ere long, be established on surer 
foundations. Nevertheless, great calamities are upon us. They are 
from the Lord, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own 
will ; and so the question naturally arises. What meaneth the heat of 
this great anger? The reply to which must be this : Because we have 
sinned against the Lord, and have not served him loith joyfulness and 
with gladness of heart for the ahitndance of all things. That covets 
ousness, which is idolatry in the sight of God, and the source of 
numberless disorders, has prevailed in every section and corner of 
this wide-spread country. Very many are involved in all the guilt of 
intemperance and filthy debaucheries. But the sins that have in an 
especial manner provoked the eyes of the Holy One, seem to be 
these : — 

"1. Pride and self-sufiiciency ; glorying in our supposed wisdom 
and greatness. 

" 2. Inordinate and excessive ambition. 

"3. Contempt of the unspeakable grace of God in Christ, for which 
Bethsaida and Chorazin were doomed to woe, and Jerusalem was made 
an utter desolation. 

"4. Sabbath desecration. 

" 5. Obstinacy and incorrigibleness under former Providential re- 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 373 

bukes. We have been visited witli drouth and partial fiuiiine — with 
pestilence and malignant diseases — but we have not heard the Rod. 
"We have not returned to the Lord; and, therefore, his hand is laid 
more heavily upon us. 

" 6. Slaveholding, the great and immediate cause of the present 
trouble, though seldom thought of as an evil by those who are directly 
concerned in it. Slavery must be exceedingly flagrant in the sight 
of the Grreat Parent and Ruler of men. If it is murder, the blackest 
of crimes, to violate the image of God instamped on man, what is it 
to debase and trample on that image, and treat it as a brutal thing ? 
To tear asunder the tender ties of nature and affection — what is it but 
horrible cruelty? To work a man, and give him no wages, or no suf- 
ficient wages, is nothing but robbery and oppression. To forbid the 
great God to speak to his own creatures, that they may be saved, is 
bidding defiance to the very heavens. To deprive a people of the 
ordinance and privileges of marriage, is to keep them in beastly con- 
cubinage. It should not be thought that we, in the free States, have 
nothing to do with this monstrous iniquity. Have we not counten- 
anced those who practiced it? Have we not contributed to extend, 
and establish, and fortify it? Paul was guilty of the murder of 
Stephen, though he did not cast a single stone. With regard to the 
aboriginal inhabitants of the land, it is to be feared that they also 
have had cause to complain of injustice and cruel rapacity." 

3. Extract from the Minutes of the First United Presbyterian 
Synod of the West, held in the First U. P. Church, Allegheny, 
Pa.^ commencing Oetoher 1st, 1861. 

" The Select Committee appointed by Synod to consider so much 
of the Reports and Petitions of Presbyteries as refer to our national 
troubles and the judgments with which we are at present afflicted, 
would most respectfully submit to Synod the following, as the result 
of its deliberations : 

" WJiereas, The Declaration of our National Independence recog- 
nizes, in accordance with the vVord of God, the unity of the human 
race, that all men are created equal, have a right to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness ; and, 

" Wlicreas, This nation is in the midst of a great and wicked rebel- 
lion, which threatens the very existence of our Government, and seeks 
to fasten permanently upon the nation the system of slavery — a sys- 



874 PULPIT POLITICS. 

tern at war witli the Word of God, with the interests of humanity, 
with the Declaration of our National Independence, and the best in- 
terests, in any sense, of the nation ; and, 

" Whereas^ We, as a nation, have too much countenanced this insti- 
tution and given it support, and believe that by this and our other 
sins, we have brought our liberties into jeopardy, and subjected our- 
selves to the judgments of God in civil war and in other forms; and, 

" Wloereas, We can not expect a removal of our afflictions, and our 
restoration to the favor of Go^, until we acknowledge our sins, and 
turn from them unto Him ; therefore, 

^^ Resolved, 1. That we, will, in every way consistent with tJie law 
of God, defend and seek to hand down to posterity, unimpaired, the 
religious and civil liberty inherited from our fathers ; and, that in 
order to do this, we will -uphold our Federal authorities in the prose- 
cution of our present war for the suppression of the existing rebellion. 

'^^ Resolved, 2. That while, as Christian men and patriots, we zeal- 
ously and heartily support our National Government in the present 
war for the maintenance of its integrity, we are not blind to the de- 
fects of our institutions, to the defective administration of law, and 
our sins as a nation ; that we trace our present national difficulties 
mainly to slavery and the evils growing out of slavery ; that by this, 
and our other sins, we have offended God, and there is no hope for us 
but in repentance and return to Him ; and that we recognize that our 
repentance can not be acceptable to God, unless we, as a nation, break 
off our sins, unless we acknowledge Him and His law and providence, 
and ceasing to countenance this wicked system of slavery, use all the 
means in our power to carry into effect the law of the Bible, ' to loose 
the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed 
go free, and that ye break every yoke,' and remembering that 'right- 
eousness exalteth a nation,' and that 'sin is a reproach to any people,' 
in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of our National 
Independence, seek to maintain every man in the enjoyment of his 
rights as a man. 

" Resolved, 3. That the Slave Power, by inaugurating this wicked 
rebellion against the government, has forfeited all claim to any pro- 
tection or toleration of its peculiar institution ; and as the most speedy 
way of establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquillity, and sup- 
pressing the rebellion, we approve of the manumission, by military 
proclamation, of the slaves, and the confiscation of all the property 
of those found in arms against the government, in all the military 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCnES AND SLAVERY. 375 

districts in which our commanding officers now have, or may hereafter 
have, military jurisdiction." (9) 

A committee of six were appointed to go on to Washington, 
for the purpose of pressing upon the attention of the President, 
etc., the views of Synod, and urging the "necessity of taking 
immediate steps to put away our national sins, tliat we may be 
restored to the favor of God." 

The Synods of New York, of Illinois, and Iowa, passed similar 
resolutions to the foregoing: 

Section V. — Opinions of British Churches on American 
Slavery. 

1. In 1860, a deputation was sent to Scotland, from the United 
Presbyterian Church, to attend the Sessions of the United 
Presbyterian Church op Scotland. The subjoined extracts, 
from the proceedings of that body, on the presentation of the 
delegates, together with the reply of Rev. Dr. Kerr, so far as he 
alluded to the subject of slavery, will interest the reader, as being 
in keeping with the whole tenor of the policy of American Anti- 
Slavery men. 

" The Clerk of Committee of Bills and Overtures said that he had 
been instructed to introduce to the Synod the Rev. Dr. David R. Kerr, 
delegate from the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian 
Church of North America. The credentials of Dr. Kerr having been 
read, together with the letter tabled by him from the Church he re- 
presented, the clerk explained that with one branch of the United 
Church the Synod had formerly held fraternal intercourse. The 
United Presbyterian Church in North America held principles in 
common with the Synod, and adhered to the same doctrines and form 
of government. This Church was also honorably distinguished by 
their testimony against slavery. They regarded the system of slavery, 
as it exiHted in America, as not merely an evil, but a sin, and treated 
it in the same way as any other sin. It was made by them a term of 
communion. This fact, along with the other claims they had on their 
regards, entitled this Church to their warmest sympathy and Christian 
affection. He (the Clerk) had the highest satisfaction, in the absence 
of the Rev. Henry Rentou, who had undertaken the duty, but was 



37G PULPIT POLITICS. 

prevented from being present, to introduce Dr. Kerr to tlie affectionate 
regards of the Synod. (Applause.) 

"Dr. Kerr then said — 'It is my happiness to appear before this 
venerable body to present the salutations of a Church of kindred 
origin, of like faith and order, and, with the exception of national 
designation, of the same name — the United Presbyterian Church of 
North America We declare, in our testimony, " That slave- 
holding — that is, the holding of unoffending human beings in involun- 
tary bondage, and considering and treating them as property, and 
subject to be bought and sold — is a violation of the law of God, and 
contrary both to the letter and spirit of Christianity." And we not 
only bear testimony, but we bring our discipline to bear against this 
great moral evil of our land. We make our declaration on the subject 
a term of communion. We deal with slavery just as with other sins 
which, after due instruction and admonition, are unrepented of. We 
believe this to be the great sin of the American nation and Church; 
of the latter even more than the former; for if the Church had dealt 
faithfully with this subject, if she had brought her testimony and dis- 
cipline to bear on it, as fiiithfulness to the law of her King, and to the 
claims, not of Christianity simply, but of suffering humanity, de- 
manded, we may believe that, ere this time, slavery would scarcely 
have had a habitation or a name among us. And we may be at a loss 
which the more to deplore — the great evil itself, or the feeling of 
indifference with which so many Christians in our land have allowed 
themselves to regard it. But I am not here to reproach others, but, 
in seeking your acquaintance, to let you know precisely what we are 
ourselves. And, for my own Church, it is no ordinary gratification 
to be able to say that, however other churches may feel at liberty to 
deal with this subject, we have felt it to be a duty to array against 
slavery an earnest and consistent testimony.' (Cheers.)"* 

Not one word have we here, nor in any part of the address of 
Rev. Dr. Kerr, in relation to the question of African Evangeliza- 
tion, by the United Presbyterian Church of America. Four 
millions of Africans, nearly, were then in the United States, and 
nearly a half million of them were freemen; and yet the Rev. 
gentleman could cite no efforts of his Church for their spiritual 
welfare; nor did the Scotch brethren ask what their American 

* Christian Instructor, Philadelphia, August 22cl, 1860. 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 377 

brethren had done for the Christianization of the colored pe()ple. 
They seemed to care only to know that persistent eiforts for the 
overthrow of slavery were still continued in the United States ; 
while, at the same time, they were careful not to inform the 
American deputation that the British government were preparing 
for the coming emancipation in America, by earnestly promoting 
cotton culture, by slave labor, in Africa.* 

2. It may interest the reader to see the mode in which foreign 
Churches have been interfering with the subject of American 
slavery. As a fair specimen of this brotherly kindness, we give 
the following, which sufficiently explains itself: 

" United Presbyterian Church op Scotland on American 
Slavery. 

'■'■Resolutions of the Synod of the United Preshyterian Church respect- 
ing American Slavery and its faithful opponents in the United States 
at the present time. 

"At Edinburgh, iind within the Synod Hall, Queen Street, -» 
on Wodnosday, 22d May, 18G1, 11 o'clock, A. M. J 

" The Synod of the United Presbyterian Church met, and was con- 
stituted by the Rev. John Robson, D. D., Moderator, when the Min- 
utes of last Sederunt were read. 

" Transmitted and read Overture by the Presbytery of Kelso, in 
favor of the Synod's renewal of the condemnation of American slav- 
ery, the tenor whereof follows : — 

" ' That the disruption of the United States of America by the ele- 
ment of slavery — issuing, as it has done, in a new Confederation of 
the Southern States, founded on the principle of slavery, while the 
remaining Union of the Northern and Western States retains all that 
was defective in the original Constitution of the United States on that 
principle, and all the obnoxious laws which have been passed to up- 

* See Chapter XI, on the Cotton tiuestioii. See also the Statistics, Prosliytorian 
Almanac, from which it appears tliat the membership of both the United 
Presliyterian Church of Scotland and Hcv. Dr. Kerr's Church, of the same name, 
in the United States, is 265,717 less than the number of slave converts in the 
South. 



378 PULPIT POLITICS. 

hold it — call for much conceru and vigilance on the part of all who 
are opposed to the monstrous iniquity of treating human beings as 
property, that in the close commercial relations subsisting between 
Great Britain and the American States, the public sentiment of this 
country may not be deteriorated, nor its hostility to slavery abated — 
and calls no less for earnest sympathy and moral support on behalf 
of all those in the American States who are withstanding that iniquity, 
and laboring for its overthrow ; and, therefore, that the Synod should 
at this time renew its condemnation of slavery and its repudiation of 
fellowship with slaveholders, and testify its respect for and sympathy 
with, those Christian churches and ministers in the United States who 
are maintaining a faithful and intrepid testimony against slavery as 
sin, and who are consistently carrying out that testimony by refusing 
all fellowship with slaveholders.' 

" The Presbytery of Kelso were heard in support of their Overture, 
when the Synod, after reasoning, adopted the following resolutions : 

" 1. That the Synod, in the different bodies of which it consisted 
before the union, as well as in its united state since, has ever regarded 
slavery with unanimous and unqualified condemnation. 

" 2. That the grounds on which this Synod condemns slavery are 
not merely that it is impolitic, urjjust, inhuman, and subversive of 
what are accounted the natural rights of man — personal liberty, the 
disposal of his own labor, and the enjoyment of its fruits — but that it 
is flagrantly opposed to the revealed will of God, and is, therefore a 
heinous sin, when maintained by those who possess the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and profess submission to them as the supreme rule of faith and 
practice. 

"3. That of all systems of oppression and legalized iniquity at present 
known in the world, this Synod regards that of slavery in the United 
States of North America to be the most inexcusable and guilty, as up- 
held by a nation which proclaims that all men have equal rights to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and which enjoys a widely- 
preached Gospel, a free circulation of the Scriptures, a free press, and 
public schools for the education of all its children. 

" 4. That the same principles which led this Synod and the congre- 
gations under its care to seek the total and immediate abolition of 
slavery throughout the British colonies a quarter of a century ago, 
prompt and require its earnest sympathy with those in other lands 
who are laboring for a similar end, and especially with Christian 
brethren in the United States of America, who, in the present crisis 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 379 

of that country, are, amid great opposition and obloquy, contending 
for tlie abolition of slavery througliout its territories. 

" 5. That copies of these resolutions be sent to the Synods of the 
United Presbyterian and Reformed Presbyterian Churches in the 
United States, and to the representatives and organs of the Christian 
abolitionists of other denominations in that country. 

Appointed the Eev. Henry Ronton and George C. Hutton, with Mr. 
James Henderson, Edinburgh, a Committee to transmit the resolutions 
to the parties named therein — Mr. Ronton, Convener. 

Extracted from the Records of Synod by 

David Crawford, Synod Clcrh. 

3. We append another extract, as breathing the true spirit of 
the liberal-minded Christian, The General Assembly of the Free 
Church of Scotland held its meeting in Edinburgh, May, 18G1. 

" On the motion of the retiring Moderator, seconded by the Earl 
of Dalhousie, Dr. Candlish was, by acclamation, called to the Modera- 
tor's chair. In the course of his remarks upon taking the chair, Dr. 
Candlish made an eloquent address upon the religious condition of 
Scotland and of the world, and alluded to the state of things in this 
country as follows : 

'■ ' I own I have felt, I would almost say amazement, at the manner 
in which the present portentous spectacle looming upon us from across 
the Atlantic has been contemplated on our side. I speak of relig- 
ious men and religious associations, and I can not but express sur- 
prise and sorrow that, amid the endless comments and speculations 
of politicians, the voice of our common Christianity has been so little 
heard, either in prayers to our Father, or in pleading with our breth- 
ren, that this gigantic fratricide may be stayed, and some better way 
found for ridding the land of the crime and curse of slavery than the 
deluging of its fertile plains with fraternal blood. (Hear, hear). When 
war seemed imminent between that country and our own some few 
years ago, there was no such silence. It may be that silence — the 
silence of suspense and awe — is the most emphatic speech the British 
Churches and British Christians can, at this juncture, send over the 
ocean. It may be that, in presence of so ominous a thunder-cloud, 
they can do no more than behold and wonder, and wait and weep. 
It may, however, on the other hand, be matter for consideration in 
our Assembly of Scotland's Free Presbyterian Church, accustomed to 



380 PULPIT POLITICS. 

respect the great Presbyterian community in tbe States, to recognize 
among her sons some of the noblest champions of the faith that God 
has raised up in our day, and to rejoice with thankfulness in many 
revivals within her borders, from of old till now, whether some duty 
may not lie upon us, in this solemn pause, when the scarce unsheathed 
sword seems to be trembling ere it strike the first fatal and irrevocable 
blow. If no cry of ours, appealing to ties of Christian fellowship as 
yet unbroken, binding still in one church-communion the stern com- 
batants in both camps, may be likely to be heard amid the din of 
gathering battle, at least our cry can go up to heaven, that it may 
please Him who is Head over all things to this Church, and who, 
making the wrath of man to praise Him, mercifully restrains the re- 
mainder thereof — to shorten these terrible days, for the elects' sake, 
and to bring, ere long, out of all these troubles a glorious issue of 
liberty and peace.' " 

Section VI. — Brief Remarks on the foregoing Legislation. 

(1) The interference of the Associate Synod with the rights 
of its members to vote as they chose, never amounted to any 
thing. Her people, generally, were an intelligent class of men, 
and considered themselves about as capable of judging in civil 
aflfairs as their ministers. They never bowed the neck to this 
yoke. 

(2) The resolutions of the Associate Reformed Church were 
interpreted differently in different sections of the Synod — some 
considering them as excluding the slaveholder from the commun- 
ion of the Church, and others giving them a different interpret- 
ation. The people of this Cliurch at large never attached much 
importance to the slavery resolutions, and but few indeed of its 
ministers ever ranked themselves as abolitionists. Some of its 
ministers, however, were rigid in their rule of excluding all cler- 
gymen of their sister Church at the South from their pulpits. 

(3) The repudiation of the Constitution of the United States 
is a distinctive feature in the principles of the Reformed Presby- 
terian Church. They declare, unequivocally, that slaveholding is 
sinful. In this view both branches agree ; but the New Side do 
not set aside the Constitution as sinful, but Avill vote and hold 
oflBce. 



SCOTTISH AMERICAN CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 381 

(4) The doctrine, that the civil government should acknowl- 
edge its submission to the authority of the Church, is a peculiarity 
of this religious body. Its practical application seems impossible 
in the present condition of the Christian Church, torn, as it is, into 
so many fragments. It would be somewhat difficult, we think, 
to select the particular Church which should have the control of 
the Government in questions pertaining to religion and moraJs. 
This view would seem to be a fiction of the olden times, such as 
made the Pope supreme over the nations. 

(5) Here we have a solemn truth. The great mass of the 
Northern people never have sympathized with the abolitionists ; 
and could the Southern people have known this fact, they never 
would have been induced to rebel against the Government, from 
the fear that the North were determined to let their slaves loose 
upon them. 

(6) But, notwithstanding what is said above is true, yet we 
have had continuous repetitions of such language as is contained 
in the sixth proposition of the Reformed Presbyterian Church ; 
and which it is impossible for any Southern man to interpret in 
any other way, than that it embodies the essential elements of 
abolitionism. 

(7) This resolution embodies the extreme radical ground since 
taken by the abolition politicians. We have here a fair specimen 
of the tender mercies of fanatical clergymen. The successful 
declaration of emancipation, under present circumstances, would 
be the letting loose of four millions of slaves, to pillage, burn, 
destroy, and murder all before them. This result can not but be 
foreseen, and yet the Reformed Presbytery of Pittsburgh would 
look with complacency upon the rapine and murder that would 
follow in the wake of their scheme of settling our national diffi- 
culties. 

(8) The United Presbyterian Church, it will be seen, has 
taken the broad ground that slaveholding is a sin. 

(9) Here we have, again, the very Christian-like proposition 
of letting loose the slave population upon defenseless women and 
children ! We recommend to the brethren of this Synod the 



382 PULPIT POLITICS. 

declarations of the Rev. Dr. Candlish, of the Free Church of 
Scotland, copied on a preceding page. 

In taking a survey of the ecclesiastical legislation embodied 
in the present chapter, it would be impossible for any one, not 
otherwise informed, to come to any other conclusion than that 
these whole Scottish Churches are intensely abolitionized ; and 
yet such is not the fact, as to many of the ministry, and the 
great majority of their people. 

The people of these Churches are among the most orderly and 
law-abiding of any of the citizens of the Union. At no one time, 
within the period of the excitement upon the subject of slavery, 
could there have been one-third of them induced to vote for the 
emancipation of the slaves at the South, except with the free and 
full assent of the masters ; and not one in a hundred could ever 
have been induced to assent to a dissolution of the Union, as a 
means of being disconnected from slavery. The fanaticism on 
this question has been limited to the few, and the many have 
acquiesced in what has been done for the sake of peace. The 
rabid opinions expressed by the Pittsburgh Synod of the United 
Presbyterian Church, and the Reformed Presbytery of Pitts- 
burgh, are acts done under intense excitement, and will be sub- 
jects of regret hereafter. The declaration of emancipation by 
the Executive, or by any of the commanding generals under him, 
as recommended by these religious bodies, is a measure that has 
already received the seal of condemnation by the people, in the 
late Democratic victories. Why a Church court should volun- 
teer its judgment upon a political measure of such moment, is a 
question that its members must answer for themselves. The 
public will naturally inquire, whether the ministers, assuming to 
dictate to the Government, have themselves given such evidences 
of being imbued with wisdom from on high — have had such suc- 
cess in their own field of duties — as to warrant their assumption 
of the office of dictators in civil afiFairs. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE U. S. AND SLAVERY. 

The Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
United States, as organized under the direction of Mr. Wesley, 
had a rule on slavery which aimed at the extirpation of the slave 
trade, and the promotion of emancipation. In 1784, the organ- 
ization of the Annual Conferences was effected, and all business 
conducted by them until 1792. In 1796, the organization of 
the General Conference may be considered as completed. Its 
session for this year was held in Baltimore, and it has met once 
in four years since that period. 

The action of the General Conference, at the meeting of 1796, 
on the subject of slavery, was as follows: 

" Question 12. What regulations shall be made for the extirpation 
of the crying evil of slavery ? 

"Answer 1. We declare that we are more than ever convinced of 
the great evil of the African slavery which still exists in these United 
States ; and do most earnestly recommend to the yearly Conferences, 
quarterly meetings, and to those who have the oversight of the dis- 
tricts and circuits, to be exceedingly cautious what persons they admit 
to official stations in our Church; and, in the case of future admission 
to official stations, to require such security of those who hold slaves, 
for the emancipation of them, immediately or gradually, as the laws 
of the States respectively, and the circumstances of the case will admit. 
And we do fully authorize all the yearly Conferences to make whatever 
regulations they judge proper, in the present case, respecting the 
admission of persons to official stations in our Church. 

" 2. No slaveholder shall be received into society, till the preacher 

who has the oversight of the circuit has spoken to him freely and 

faithfully on the subject of slavery. 

(383) 



384 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" 3. Every member of the Society who sells a slave, shall immedi- 
ately, after full proof, be excluded the Society. And if any member 
of our Society purchase a slave, the ensuing quarterly meeting shall 
determine on the number of years in which the skve, so purchased, 
would work out the price of his purchase. And the person so pur- 
chasing shall, immediately after such determination, execute a legal 
instrument for the manumission of such slave, at the expiration of the 
term determined by the quarterly meeting. And in default of his exe- 
cuting such instrument of manumission, or on his refusal to submit his 
case to the judgment of the quarterly meeting, such member shall be 
excluded the Society. Provided also, that in the case of a female 
slave, it shall be inserted in the aforesaid instrument of manumission, 
that all her children which shall be born during the years of her 
servitude shall be free at the following times, namely : every female 
child at the age of twenty-one, and every male child at the age of 
twenty-five. Nevertheless, if the member of our Society, executing the 
said instrument of manumission judge proper, he may fix the times 
of manumission of the children of the female slave beforementioned, 
at an earlier age than that which is prescribed above. 

" 4. The preachers and other members of our Society are requested 
to consider the subject of negro slavery with deep attention till the 
ensuing General Conference ; and that they impart to the General Coa- 
ftrenee, through the medium of the yearly conferences or otherwise, 
any important thoughts upon the subject, that the Conference may 
have full light, in order to take further steps4oward the eradication 
of this enormous evil from that part of the Church of God to which 
they are united." 

In the year 1800, the General Conference again met in Balti- 
more. During this session resolutions, varying in character, were 
presented, but only two of them adopted: the first, asking for 
the appointment of a committee to prepare an affectionate address 
to the Methodist Societies, stating the evils of the spirit and 
practice of slavery, and the necessity of doing away the evil as 
far as the laws of the respective States will allow ; the second, 
that traveling preachers, becoming the owners of slaves, by any 
means, shall forfeit their ministerial character, unless they execute, 
if it be practicable, a legal emancipation of such slave or slaves, 
agreeably to the laws of the State in which they live. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 385 

In the year 1804, the General Conference again held its session 
in Baltimore. 

" May 16. — A variety of motions wei-e proposed on the subject of 
slavery, and, after a long conversation, it was moved and carried, that 
the subject of slavery be left to the three bishops, to form a section to 
suit the Southern and Northern States, as they, in their wisdom, may 
think best, to be submitted to this Conference. 

" May 17. — Read the report of the Committee on Slavery — which, 
with amendments, was adopted by Conference, and forms section nine, 
' Of Slavery.' " 

This document is substantially the same as that of 1796, except 
that it has, as its 2d and 5th articles, the following : 

" 2. When any traveling preacher becomes the owner of a slave, or 
slaves, by any means, he shall forfeit his ministerial character in our 
Church, unless he executes, if it be practicable, a legal emancipation 
of such slaves, conformably to the laws of the State in which he lives. 

" 5. Let our preachers, from time to time, as occasion serves, ad- 
monish and exhort all slaves to render due respect and obedience to 
the commands and interests of their respective masters." 

In the close of article 4, this amendment is made: "Never- 
theless, the members of our societies in the States of North Car- 
olina, South Carolina, and Georgia, shall be exempted from the 
operation of the above rules." (1) 

Dui-ing the sessions of 1808 and 1812, nothing of importance 
was done on the question of slavery, excepting, at the latter ses- 
sion, to lay upon the table a memorial on the subject. 

In 1816, the General Conference met in Baltimore. The Com- 
mittee on Slavery presented their report, which Avas concurred in 
by the Conference : 

" The committee to whom was referred the business of slavery, beg 
leave to report, that they have taken the subject into serious consid- 
eration, and, after mature deliberation, they are of opinion that, under 
the present existing circumstances in relation to slavery, little can be 
done to abolish a practice so contrary to the principles of moral jus- 
tice. They are sorry to say that the evil appears to be past remedy ; 
25 



386 PULPIT POLITICS. 

and they are led to deplore the destructive consequences which have 
already accrued, and are yet likely to result therefrom. 

" Your committee find that in the South and West the civil author- 
ities render emancipation impracticable, and, notwithstanding they are 
led to fear that some of our members are too easily contented with 
laws so unfriendly to freedom, yet, nevertheless, they are constrained 
to admit that to bring about such a change in the civil code as would 
fjivor the cause of liberty, is not in the power of the Generab Con- 
ference. Your committee have attentively read, and seriously con- 
sidered, a memorial on the above subject, presented from several per- 
sons within the bounds of the Baltimore Annual Conference. They 
have also made inquiry into the regulations adopted and pursued by 
the different annual conferences in relation to this subject; and they 
find that some of them have made no efiieient rules on the subject 
of slavery, thereby leaving our people to act as they please ; while 
others have adopted rules, and pursued courses not a little different 
from each other, all pleading the authority given them by the Gen- 
eral Conference, according to cur present existing rule, as stated in 
our form of Discipline. Your committee conclude that, in order to be 
consistent and uniform, the rule should be express and definite ; and, 
to bring about this uniformit}-, they beg leave to submit the follow- 
ing resolution : 

" Resolved^ by the delegates- of the annual conferences in General 
Conference assembled, That all the recommendatory part of the second 
division, ninth section, and first answer of our form of Discipline, 
after the word 'slavery,' be stricken out, and the following words in- 
serted : ' Therefore no slaveholder shall be eligible to any official 
station in our Church hereafter, where the laws of the State in which 
he lives will admit of emancipation, and permit the liberated slave to 
enjoy freedom.' 

In 1820, the General Conference met at Baltimore. Certain 
documents from Tennessee were referred to the Committee on 
Slavery, which, together with the report of 1816, were acted upon 
by the committee, a substitute reported, one of its propositions 
adopted, the report recommitted, and the whole subject finally 
postponed indefinitely. 

In 1824, the General Conference met at Baltimore. The Com- 
mittee on Slavery, in compliance with the several memorials pre- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 387 

sented, asldng provision to be made for the spiritual welfare of 
tlie colored population, free and slave, reported, and, after various 
modifications, the following resolutions were adopted : 

''■Resolved, 1. That all our preachers ought prudently to enforce 
upon our members the necessity of teaching their slaves to read the 
Word of God; and also that they give time to hear the Word of God 
preached on our regular days of divine service. 

" Resolved, 2. That our colored preachers and official members have 
all the privileges, in the district and quarterly meeting conferences, 
which the usages of the country in different sections will justify: 
Provided, also, that the presiding elder may, when there is a sufficient 
number, hold for them a separate district conference. 

^'■Resolved, 3. That any of the annual conferences may employ 
colored preachers to travel, where they judge their services may be 
necessary, provided they be recommended according to the form of 
Discipline. (2) 

••Resolved, 4. That the above resolutions be made a part of the 
section in the Discipline on slavery." 

In 1828, the General Conference met at Pittsburgh, Pa. A 
resolution against the bad treatment of slaves was offered, and 
subsequently withdrawn, and resolutions passed approving the 
course of the American Colonization Society. 

In 1832, the General Conference met at Philadelphia, During 
this session, the subject of the religious rights and privileges of 
the colored people, and also what change should be made in the 
section on the subject of slavery, Avere brought forward by reso- 
lution, and referred to committees. 

In 1836, the General Conference met in Cincinnati, Ohio. The 
following resolution was offered : 

•' Resolved, That the committee appointed to draft a pastoral letter 
to our preachers, members, and friends, be, and they are hereby in- 
structed, to take notice of the subject of modern abolition, that has 
so seriously agitated the different parts of our country, and that they 
let our preachers, members, and friends know that the General Con- 
ference are opposed to the agitation of that subject, and will use all 
prudent means to put it down. 



38« PULPIT POLITICS. 

" On motion of S. G. Rozel, a preamble and resolutions on the case 
of two members, lecturing on the subject of abolition in this city, 
was taken up, which produced considerable excitement and discussion, 
until the time for adjournment had arrived." 

The discussion on Mr. Rozel's motion was prolonged through- 
out three sittings, and the following preamble^ and resolutions 
were finally adopted by an overwhelming majority : 

"The whole of the motion, as adopted, is as follows, viz. : 

" Whereas, great excitement has prevailed in this country on the 
subject of modern abolitionism, which is reported to have been in- 
creased in this city recently by the unjustifiable conduct of two mem- 
bers of the General Conference, in lecturing upon and in favor of 
that agitating topic ; and whereas, such a course, on the part of any 
of its members, is calculated to bring upon this body the suspicions 
and distrust of the community, and misrepresent its sentiments in 
regard to the point at issue ; and whereas, in this aspect of the case, 
a due regard for its own character, as well as a just concern for the 
interests of the Church confided to its care, demand a full, decided, 
and unequivocal expression of the views of the General Conference 
in the premises, therefore, 

^'■Resolved, by the delegates of the annual conferences in General 
Conference assembled, 1. That they disapprove, in the most unquali- 
fied sense, the conduct of two members of the General Conference, 
who are reported to have lectured in this city recently upon and in 
favor of modern abolitionism. 

'•'■Resolved, 2. That they are decidedly opposed to modern abolition- 
ism, and wholly disclaim any right, wish, or intention to interfere in 
the civil and political relation existing between master and slave, as 
it exists in the slaveholding States of this Union. (3) 

" Resolved, 3. That the foregoing preamble and resolutions be pub- 
lished in our periodicals." 

During this session a number of memorials on the subject of 
slavery were presented, and a report made by the judiciary com- 
mittee in relation to grievances complained of by the Baltimore 
Annual Conference, and others, in which it is said, " that the 
exceptions to the general rule in the Discipline clearly apply to 
official members of the Church in Virginia, according to the laws 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. G89 

of the Commonwealtli, and do, therefore, protect them against rt 
forfeiture of their official standing, on account of said rule." 

" The chairman of the committee on the subject of shivery pre- 
sented a report, which was read and adopted, as follows : 

" The committee to whom were referred sundry memorials from 
the North, praying that certain rules on the subject of slavery, which 
formerly existed in our Book of Discipline, should be restored, and 
that the General Conference take such measures as they may deem 
proper to free the Church from the evil of slavery, beg leave to 
report : 

" That they have had the subject under serious consideration, and 
are of opinion that the prayers of the memorialists can not be granted, 
believing that it would be highly improper for the General Conference 
to take any action that would alter or change our rules on the subject 
of slavery. Your committee, therefore, respectfully submit the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

'^ Eeaolved, That it is inexpedient to make any change in our Book 
of Discipline respecting slavery, and that we deem it improper further 
to agitate the subject in the General Conference at present." 

In 1840, the General Conference met in Baltimore. During 
this conference the petitions against slavery were very numer- 
ous, from almost all portions of the North. There was also a 
considerable number of memorials protesting against any action 
of the General Conference upon the subject. Majority and 
minority reports were made by the committee on the subject of 
slavery. The whole subject seems to have been left among the 
unfinished business, though considerable discussion was had upon 
the majority report. The Address of the Bishops, for this year, 
takes notice of the slavery agitation in a conciliatory, conserva- 
tive, and Christian spirit. The following extract will be found 
interesting and important. It would seem that these pious men, 
in viewing the tendencies cf the slavery agitation, saw, with 
almost prophetic vision, that its practical tendency was to en- 
danger the safety of the Union of these United States : 

"The experience of more than half a century, since the organiza- 
tion of our ecclesiastical body, will afford us many important lights 



;390 PULPIT POLITICS. 

and landmarks, pointing out what is the safest and most prudent 
policy to be pursued, in our onward course, as regards African slavery 
in these States ; and especially in our own religious community. This 
very interesting period of our history is distinguished by several 
characteristic features having a special claim to our consideration at 
the present time, particularly in view of the unusual excitement 
which now prevails on the subject, not only in the diflPerent Christian 
Churches, but also in the civil body. And, first : our general rule 
on slavery, which forms a part of the Constitution of the Church, has 
stood, from the beginning, unchanged, as testamentary of our senti- 
ments on the principle of slavery and the slave trade. And in this 
we differ in no respect from the sentiments of our venerable founder, 
or from tho^e of the wisest and most distinguished statesmen and 
civilians of our own and other enlightened and Christian countries. 
Secondly ; in all the enactments of the Church relating to slavery, a 
due and respectful regard has been had to the laws of the States, 
never requiring emancipation in contravention of the civil authority, 
or where the laws of the States would not allow the liberated slave to 
enjoy his freedom. Thirdly : the simply holding or owning of slaves, 
without regard to circumstances, has, at no period of the existence 
of the Church, subjected the master to excommunication. Fourthly : 
rules have been made, from time to time, regulating the sale, and 
purchase, and holding of slaves, with reference to the different laws 
of the States where slavery is tolerated ; which, upon the experience 
of the great difficulties of administering them, and the unhappy con- 
sequences both to masters and servants, have been as often changed 
or repealed. These important facts, which form prominent features 
of our past history as a Church, may very properly lead us to inquire 
for that course of action, in future, which may be best calculated to 
preserve the peace and unity of the whole body, promote the general 
happiness of the slave population, and advance generally, in the slave- 
holding community of our country, the humane and hallowing influ- 
ence of our holy religion. We can not withhold from you, at this 
eventful period, the solemn conviction of our minds, that no new 
ecclesiastical legislation on the subject of slavery, at this time, will 
have a tendency to accomplish these most desirable objects. And we 
are fully persuaded that, as a body of Christian ministers, we shall 
accomplish the greatest good by directing our individual and united 
efforts, in the spirit of the first teachers of Christianity, to bring both 
master and servant under the sanctifying influence of the principles 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUKCH AND SLAVERY. 391 

of ttat Gospel wliich teaches tlie duties of every relation, and enforces 
the faithful discharge of them by the strongest conceivable motives. 
Do we aim at the amelioration of the condition of the slave? How 
can we so efiectually accomplish this, in our calling as ministers of 
the Gospel of Christ, as by employing our whole influence to bring 
him and his master to a saving knowledge of the grace of God, and 
to a practical observance of those relative duties so clearly prescribed 
in the writings of the inspired apostles? Permit us to add, that, 
although we enter not into the political contentions of the day, neither 
interfere with civil legislation nor with the administration of the laws, 
we can not but feel a deep interest in whatever affects the peace, pros- 
perity, and happiness of our beloved country. The Union of these 
States, the perpetuity of the bonds of our national confederation, the 
reciprocal confidence of the different members of the great civil com- 
pact, — in a word, the well-heing of the community of which we are 
members, should never cease to lay near our hearts, and for which we 
should offer up our sincere and most ardent prayers to the Almighty 
Kuler of the universe. But can we, as ministers of the Gospel, and 
servants of a Master ' whose kingdom is not of this world,' promote 
those important objects in any way so truly and permanently as by 
pursuing the course just pointed out? Can we, at this eventful crisis, 
render a better service to our country, than by laying aside all inter- 
ference with relations authorized and established by the civil laws, 
and applying ourselves wholly and faithfully to what especially apper- 
tains to our ' high and holy calling ;' to teach and enforce the moral 
obligations of the Gospel, in application to all the duties growing out 
of the different relations in society ? By a diligent devotion to this 
evangelical employment, with an humble and steadfast reliance upon 
the aid of divine influence, the number of 'believing masters' and 
servants may be constantly increased, the kindest sentiments and 
affections cultivated, domestic burdens lightened, mutual confidence 
cherished, and the peace and happiness of society promoted. While, 
on the other hand, if past history affords us any correct rules of judg- 
ment, there is much cause to fear that the influence of our sacred 
office, if employed in interference with the relation itself, and, conse- 
quently, with the civil institutions of the country, will rather tend to 
prevent than to accomplish these desirable ends." (4) 

In 184-i, the General Conference met, on the 1st of May, iu 
New York. The petitions on the subject of slavery, this year, 



3&2 PULPIT POLITICS. 

were very numerous. On the 14th, the following preamble and 
resolution was introduced : 

"In view of Ihe distracting agitation which has so long prevailed 
on the subject of slavery and abolition, and especially the difficulties 
under which we labor in the present General Conference, on account 
of the relative position of our brethren North and South on this per- 
plexing question; therefore, 

" Resolved, That a committee of three from the North and three 
from the South be appointed to confer with the Bishops, and report, 
within two days, as to the possibility of adopting some plan, and what, 
for the permanent pacification of the Church." 

After a slight amendment, the resolution was adopted. 
Almost immediately thereafter, the following resolution was 
offered and adopted : — 

" Resolved, That to-morrow be observed as a day of fasting and 
humiliation before God, and prayer for his blessing upon the com- 
mittee of six, in conjunction with the Bishops, on the present diffi- 
culties ; and that the hour from twelve to one o'clock be devoted to 
religious services in the Confereuce." 

This resolution was devoutly complied with at the time ap- 
pointed. 

On the 18th, Bishop Soule, in behalf of *he committee of six, 
reported, that 

" The Committee of Conference have instructed me to report, that, 
after a calm and deliberate investigation of the subject submitted to 
their consideration, they are unable to agree upon any plan of com- 
promise to recoucile the views of the Northern and Southern con- 
ferences." 

The report was accepted, and the committee discharged. 
On the 20th, a crisis was produced, in this contest, by the 
presentation of the following preamble and resolution : 

" Whereas, it is currently reported, and generally understood, that 
one of the Bishops of the M. E. Church has become connected with 
slavery ; and lohereas it is due to this General Conference to have a 
proper understanding of the matter; therefore, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 393 

" Resolved, That the Committee on the Episcopacy be instructed to 
ascertain the facts in the case, and report the results of their inves 
tigation to this body to-morrow morning." 

The person referred to was Bishop Andrew, who had become 
connected with shivery by marriage. The history of this case 
need not be presented here. It led to the disruption of the 
Church. " The Southern members contended that, as the laws 
of the State in which the Bishop lived would not permit eman- 
cipation, the General Conference should not interfere in the case. 
The majority of the delegates insisted that as a Bishop was re- 
quired ' to travel through the connection at large, any connection 
with slavery would embarrass both him and the Church in the 
performance of his duties,' and declared their judgment to be that 
Bishop Andrew should cease from the exercise of episcopal func- 
tions until he could relieve himself of this impediment. Then 
followed that separation which has become one of the great facts 
of ecclesiastical history." * 

On the 6th June, the Committee on Slavery, after stating that 
about 10,000 signatures appeared attached to the variouis memo- 
rials from the people, and that they find petitions from nine 
Annual conferences, say, that they deem it inexpedient to rec- 
ommend any fai'ther action, except that suggested in their first 
report ; and then proceed to say that they " have also received a 
statement of the votes from several of the annual conferences 
upon the alterations proposed to be made in the General Rules 
upon the subject of slavery. No evidence, however, has as yet 
reached the committee that a constitutional number of votes in 
the annual conferences has been obtained to make any altera- 
tions in the General Rules upon the subject of slavery." 

The Address of the Bishops, for this year, embraced some 
very important statements in reference to the progress of the 
Gospel among the slaves, and the very limited success of the 
Chui-ch among the colored people of the free States. It says : 

"Although we have not been able to extend the missions among the 
people of color in the southern and southwestern States, according to 

* See Minority Eeport on Slavery, 1860. 



394 PULPIT POLITICS. 

our ardent desires, and tlie providential openings before us, for want 
of pecuniary means, still we rejoice ttat we have not been compelled 
to abandon the fields whicb we bave already under cultivation ; and 
that we have been enabled to occupy some new and very promising 
grounds. It is a matter of gratulation to the friends of humanity and 
religion, and of devout thanksgiving to Grod, that the unhappy excite- 
ment which, for several years, spread a dark cloud over our pros- 
pects, and weakened our hands, and filled our hearts with grief, has 
died away, and almost ceased to blast our labors. Confidence in the 
integrity of our principles, and the purity of our motives, which, for a 
time, was shaken, is restored. New and extensive fields are openin<r 
before us, and inviting us to the harvest. The conviction of the duty 
and benefit of giving religious instruction to servants is constantly 
increasing. The self-sacrificing zeal of the missionaries is worthy of 
the cause in which they are engaged — the cause of humanity ; the 
cause of the salvation of souls ; the cause of God. Brethren, suffer 
us to beseech you, by the tender mercies of God, by the precious 
blood of Jesus, and by the crying spiritual wants of perishing thou- 
sands for whom he died, to strengthen the hands and encourage the 
hearts of your fellow-laborers, who are more directly engaged in this 
blessed work, by your ceasless prayers to God for them. 

" We can not but view it as a matter of deep regret, that the spiritual 
interests of the people of color in these United States have been so 
long and so greatly neglected by the Christian Chiirches. And it is 
greatly to be feared that we are not innocent in this thing. AVhile 
we profess to sympathize with millions of the African race in this 
land, being children of the same common Father of mankind, ' who 
has made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell upon the face of 
the whole earth ;' but who are deprived of equal civil rights and priv- 
ileges with the white citizens, by the laws and institutions of the 
country, over which we have no control , have we not been negligent 
of their higher, even their eternal, interests, which we are at perfect 
liberty, and have the means, to promote? And, if so, is not this 
neglect, especially in their circumstances, a violation of the laws of 
our common nature, and the obligations founded in the relations we 
sustain to them, in a common brotherhood? There is, blessed be 
God, no bar in the laws of our country to prevent them from receiving 
religious instruction, or being gathered into the fold of God. Here, 
then, we have an open door. We may preach the Gospel of Christ 
to them, unite them in the communion of his Church, and introduce 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 395 

them to a participation of the blessings of her fellowship, and thus be 
the instruments of their preparation for the riches of the inheritance 
of the saints in glory. This, as ministers of Christ, is our loorh, and 
should be our glory and joy. This, by the grace of God helping us, 
we can do ; but to raise them to equal civil rights and privileges is 
not within our power. Let us not labor in vain, and spend our 
strength for naught. In this cause we are debtors both to the bond 
and the free ; yea, to all men. But are we, as servants of a Master 
whose kingdom is not of this world, discharging our obligations to 
the utmost extent of our ability? Have we neglected no means within 
our power to promote the present and eternal well-being of this nu- 
merous and needy class of our brethren ? Let facts give the answer. 
From an examination of official records, it appears that there are four 
annual conferences in which there is not a single colored member 
in the Church. Eight others have an aggregate number of four hun- 
dred and sixty-three, averaging less than sixty. And taking fifteen, 
almost one-half of the conferences in the connection, and some of 
them among the largest, both in the ministry and membership, and the 
whole number of colored members is but one thousand three hundred 
and nine, giving an average of less than ninety. It is well known that, 
in many of these conferences, there is a numerous colored population, 
and in each of them a very considerable number. It is presumed that 
the freedom of the people of color, within the bounds of these con- 
ferences, will not be urged as the cause of their not being brought 
under religious influence, and gathered into the fold of Christ. We 
are certainly not prepared to admit that a state of servitude is more 
favorable to the success of the Gospel, in its experimental and practical 
effects, than a state of freedom. Facts will clearly show that this is 
not the cause. In the city of Baltimore alone, there arc nearly four 
times the number of colored people in the Church that we find in the 
fifteen conferences referred to ; and yet a vast majority of them are as 
free as they are in almost all the states embraced in these conferences. 
It may be well for us to examine this subject carefully, in connection 
with our high responsibility."* (5) 

As necessary to a proper understanding of the position of the 
South, in relation to slavery, we present the following historical 
Statement fi-om the Protest of the Minority of the General Con- 

* Journals of the General Conference, 1844. 



P,96 PULPIT POLITICS. 

ference, against the action of that body, in the case of Bishop 
Andrew. From this view of the subject, it appears that there 
has been an "irrepressible conflict'"' betAveen the North and the 
South, almost ever since the organization of the Methodist Church 
in this country : 

" The law of the Church on slavery has always existed since 1785, 
but especially since 1804, and in view of the adjustment of the whole 
subject, in 1816, as a virtual, though informal, contract of mutual con- 
cession and forbearance, between the North and the South, then, as 
now, known and existing as distinct parties, in relation to the vexed 
questions of slavery and abolition. Those conferences found in States 
where slavery prevailed constituting the Southern party, and those in 
the non-slaveholding States the Xorthern, exceptions to the rule being 
found in both. The rights of the legal owners of slaves, in all the 
slaveholding States, are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United 
States, and by the local constitutions of the States respectively, as the 
supreme law of the land, to which every minister and member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church within the limits of the United States 
government professes subjection, and pledges himself to submit, as 
an article of Christian faith, in the common creed of the Church. 
Domestic slavery, therefore, wherever it exists in this country, is a 
civil regulation, existing under the highest sanctions of constitutional 
and municipal law known to the tribunals of the country, and it has 
always been assumed at the South, and relied upon as correct, that 
the North or non-slaveholding States had no right, civil or moral, to 
interfere with relations and interests thus secured to the people of 
the South by all the graver forms of law and social order, and that 
it cannot be done without an abuse of the constitutional rights of 
citizenship. The people of the North, however, have claimed to think 
differently, and have uniformly acted toward the South in accordance 
with such opposition of opinion. Precisely in accordance, too, with 
this state of things, as it regards the general population of the North 
and South, respectively, the 3Iethodist Episcopal Church has been 
divided in opinion and feeling on the subject of slavery and abolition 
since its organization, in 1784: two separate and distinct parties have 
always existed. The Southern conferences, in agreeing to the main 
principles of the compromise law in 1804 and 1816, conceded, by ex- 
press stipulation, their right to resist Northern interference in any 
form, upon the condition, pledged by the North, that while the whole 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 397 

Church, by common consent, united in proper effort for tlie mitigation 
and final removal of the evil of slavery, the North was not to inter- 
fere, by excluding from membership or ministerial office in the Church, 
persons owning and holding slaves in States where emancipation is not 
practicable, and where the liberated slave is not permitted to enjoy 
freedom. Such was the compact of 1804 and 1816, finally agreed to 
by the parties after a long and fearful struggle, and such is the com- 
pact now — the proof being derived from history and the testimony 
of living witnesses. And is it possible to suppose that the original 
purpose and intended application of the law was not designed to em- 
brace every member, minister, order, and officer of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church? Is the idea of excepted cases allowable by fair 
construction of the law? Do not the reasons and intendment of the 
law place it beyond doubt, that every conceivable case of alleged mis- 
conduct that can arise, connected with slavery or abolition, is to be 
subjected, by consent and contract of parties, to the jurisdiction of 
this great conservative arrangement? 

*' Is there anything in the law or its reasons creating an exception 
in the instance of bishops ? Would the South have entered into the 
arrangement, or in any form consented to the law, had it been inti- 
mated by the North that bishops must be an exception to the rule? 
Are the virtuous dead of the North to be slandered by the supposition 
that they intended to except bishops, and thus accomplish their pur- 
poses, in negotiation with the South, by a resort to deceptive and dis- 
honorable means ? If bishops are not named, no more are presiding 
elders, agents, editors — or, indeed, any other officers of the Church, 
who are, nevertheless, included, although the same rule of construction 
would except them also. The enactment was for an entire people, 
east, west, north, and south. It was for the Church, and every mem- 
ber of it — for the common weal of the body — and is, therefore, uni- 
versal and unrestricted in its application; and no possible case can be 
settled upon any other principles, without a direct violation of this 
law both in fact and form. The law being what we have assumed, 
any violation of it, whatever may be its form or mode, is as certainly 
a breach of good faith as an infringement of law. It must be seen, 
from the manner in which the compromise was efi"ected, in the shape 
of a law, agreed to by equal contracting parties, ' the several annual 
conferences,' after long and formal negotiation, that it was not a mere 
legislative enactment, a simple decree of a General Conference, but 
partakes of the nature of a grave compact, and is invested with all 



398 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the sacredness and sanctions of a solemn treaty, binding respectively 
the well-known parties to its terms and stipulations. If this be so, — ■ 
and with the evidence accessible who can doubt it? — if this be so, will 
it prove a light matter for this General Conference to violate or dis- 
regard the obligation of this legal compromise, in the shape of public 
recognized law ! " 

In 1848, the General Conference met in Pittsburgh. But one 
petition on the subject of slavery was presented, and no com- 
mittee on the subject was appointed. 

In 1852, the General Conference met in Boston. No committee 
was appointed on the subject of slavery, and the few petitions re- 
ceived were referred to the Committee on Revisals. 

In 1856, the General Conference met at Indianapolis, in the 
State of Indiana. A Committee on Slavery, consisting of one 
member from each annual conference, was appointed. The peti- 
tions on slavery were very numerous, and demanded, among other 
things, such an alteration of the Rule on slavery as would exclude 
slaveholders. This demand was resisted, on the ground that many 
of the border Churches had agreed to remain in connection with 
the Northern division, on the ground of pledges given that no at- 
tempt would be made to alter the Rule, or give to it an abolition 
interpretation. 

The majority of the committee reported at length on the sub- 
ject. The spirit of this report can be understood from the fol- 
lowing extracts: 

"That the reduction of a moral and responsible being to the con- 
dition of property is a violation of natural rights, is considered by 
most men an axiom in ethics ; but whatever opinions may have ob- 
tained in general society, the Methodist Episcopal Church has ever 
maintained an unmistakable anti-slavery position. Affirmations that 
'slavery is founded in the philosophy of civil society,' that it 'is the 
corner-stone of republican institutions,' or that it is sanctioned by the 
Bible,' have never met with an approving response in our Church ; 
contrariwise, the Founder of Methodism denounced the system in 
unqualified terms of condemnation, and the fathers unwaveringly fol- 
lowed the example of the venerated Wesley. The Methodist Episco- 
pal Church has, in good faith, in all periods of its history, proposed 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CIIURCn AND SLAVERY. 399 

to itself the question, ' Wliat sliall be done for the extirpation of the 
evil of slavery?' and it has- never ceased, openly and before the world, 
to bear testimony against the sin, and to exercise its disciplinary powers, 
to the end that its members might be kept unspotted from criminal 
connection with the system, and that the evil itself be removed from 
among men. 

" It is affirmed and believed that the Methodist Episcopal Church 
has done more to diffuse anti-slavery sentiments, to mitigate the evils 
of the system, and to abolish the institution from civil society, than 
any other organization either political, social, or religious. It is also 
affirmed and believed that the administrators of discipline in our 
Church within the bounds of slave territory have faithfully done all 
that, under their circumstances, they have conscientiously judged 
to be in their power to answer the ends of Discipline in exterminating 
this great evil. (6) 

" We now inquire whether the time has come when it becomes the 
duty of the Church, through its representatives assembled in its high- 
est ecclesiastical court, to so revise the statutes of the Church as to 
make them express our real sentiments, and indicate our practice as 
it is. We answer, yes ! first, because it is just and equal ; it is right 
before God and all men, that in a subject involving directly the per- 
sonal liberties of thousands, and indirectly of millions of our fellow- 
men, the position of the Church should be neither equivocal or 
doubtful. Secondly, because we can not answer it to our own con- 
sciences, nor to God, the judge of all, if we fail to do what is in our 
power to bear testimony against so great an evil. Thirdly, because 
it is solemnly demanded at our hands by a very large majority of those 
whom we represent ; and, fourthly, because the signs of the times 
plainly indicate that it is the duty of all good men to rally for the 
relief of the oppressed, and for the defense of the liberties transmitted 
to us by our fathers. 

" We are aware that it is objected, that in the present excited state 
of the public mind, to take any action on the subject will be to place 
d weapon in the hands of our enemies with which they may do us 
essential injury. We reply, that in all cases, to say one thing and 
mean another, is of doubtful morality. We judge the rather that on 
all questions vital to morality and religion, the honor of the Church 
is better sustained by an unqualified declaration of the truth. 

" We come now to state what, as it seems to us, is, always has been, 
and ever should bo, the true position of our Church in respect to 



400 PULPIT POLITICS. 

slavery. "We told that the buying, selling, and, by inference, the 
holding of a human being as property, is a sin against God and man j 
that because of the social relations in vrhieh men may be placed bj 
the civil codes of slaveholding communities, the legal relations of 
master to slave may, in some circumstances, subsist innocently ; that 
connection -with slavery is prima facie evidence of guilt ; that in all 
cases of alleged criminality of this kind, the burden of proof should 
rest upon the accused, he always having secured to him the advan- 
tages of trial and appeal before impartial tribunals. 

"In view of these facts and principles, the committee recommend 
the adoption of the followiug resolutions : 

•' 1. Resolved, by the delegates of the several annual conferences, 
in General Conference assembled, that we recommend the several 
annual conferences so to amend our General Rule on slavery, as to 
read, ' The buying, selling, or holding a human being as property.' 

"2. Resolved, by the delegates of the several annual conferences, 
in General Conference assembled, that the following be, and hereby 
is, substituted in the place of the present seventh chapter of our Book 
of Discipline."' 

The chapter proposed as a substitute "was made to conform to 
the first resolution, as interpreted by the majority report. 

The first resolution was put to vote, the result being 122 ayes 
and 66 nays. " As two thirds of the members did not favor the 
motion, it was lost, according to the rule of the discipline in such 
cases made and provided."' 

The second resolution was not called up. 

The minority of the committee reported, also, upon this subject, 
setting forth the destructive tendencies of the alteration of the 
Rule upon the Churches in the border slave States. 

In 1860, the General Conference met in Buffalo, N. Y. A 
committee of 47 was appointed on the subject of slavery. The 
memorials presented were very numerous. They stood thus : 

Against a change of the Rule, 32 annual conferences, 137 
memorials, signed by 3,999 persons, and from 47 quarterly meet- 
ing conferences. 

Asking for a change of the Rule, from 38 annual conferences, 
811 memorials, signed by 45,857 persons, and from 49 quarterly 
meeting conferences. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 401 

The General Conference met on the 1st of May, and on the 
16th the majority report was presented: 

MAJORITY REPORT ON SLAVERY. 

The Committee on Slavery oifer the following report : 

When He who spake as never man spake would comprehend the 
sum of all human duty as between man and man in one brief sentence, 
he embodied that sentence in the followino- memorable words : " All 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
so unto them; for this is the law and prophets." The same sublime 
epitome of human duty is expressed in the words, " Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself." These precepts form the moral mirror 
which God has hung up before all humanity. Into this mirror every 
man is bound to look and see his own conduct as others see it, and as 
he sees that of others. Or, to change the figure, these precepts form 
the moral scales in which every man is bound to weigh his own actions 
as he weighs the actions of other men. This Golden Law of God sheds 
its divine light upon all the relationships which subsist between man 
and his fellow ; and that which we would have a right to desire from 
any human being with whom we have to do, if we were in his circum- 
stances and he in ours, is the exact measure of our duty. 

The enslavement from generation to generation of human beings 
guilty of no crime, is what no man has a right to desire for himself or 
his posterity, and what no man ever did or can desire. The constant 
liability of the forcible separation of husbands and wives, of parents 
and children, even in the mildest forms of slavery, is a state of things 
from which every enlightened mind desires to be free. The impedi- 
ments which slavery interposes in the way of the observance of the 
conjugal and parental relations, depriving the parents from govcrnkig 
and educating their children, and the children from honoring and obey- 
ing their parents, as God has commanded, is a state of things condemned 
alike by the Bible and all enlightened consciences, and from which the 
heart's holiest aspirations struggle to be free. The sacredness and 
inviolability of the marriage covenant is one of the corner-stones of 
all Christian civilization. Slavery, as it exists in the United States, is 
fundamentally at war with this most ancient and sacred institution. 
What should we desire, and have a right to desire, if we were in the 
place of the injured party? This is the measure of our duty. 

A system which converts a human being into merchandise, which 
denies a man the rights of property, of family, of " liberty and the 
20 



402 PULPIT POLITICS. 

pursuits of happiness," and generally of tlie power to read tte record 
which God has given for the regulation of all human conduct, is a 
state of things in which no intelligent and right-minded person ever 
did or can desire to be placed. In reference to all these, and to all 
other conditions of human wrong, the solemn mandate comes down 
from Heaven : '^'x\ll things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
unt<) you, do ye even so to them." 

Grod has laid the foundation of religious education in the family 
relationships. His claims upon us find their readiest response where 
the honor and obedience due to parents are properly inculcated. The 
obligation to love God, because he first loved us, finds its strongest 
response where the tenderness and affection breathed upon childhood, 
by its divinely constitutO'd guardians, prepare the young heart for this 
high duty.* The strongest terms by which the indissoluble afiection 
subsisting between God and his Church are expressed in Scripture, 

* All the arguments of this nature are unsound, because they are based upon 
a totally mistaken view of the question at issue. Were the negroes, as a class, 
suflBciently civilized to be capable of imparting instruction in morals and relig- 
ion to their offspring, the argument would have some weight; but, rising slowly 
from the lowest barbarism, they possess no such qualifications for teaching as 
are required of those who have the care of offspring among professing Chris- 
tians. To emancipate them, would be to leave them to sink back again into 
barbarism ; and what does African barbarism do for offspring ? Listen to the 
story of a Christian missionary on this subject : 

"A Sad Scexe ik Africa. — It was said in one of the Psalms, many years 
ago, ' The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.' They 
are just as full of such habitations now as they were then, and this is one of 
the reasons why we should send missionaries to all the heathens. A short time 
ago a missionary in Africa left his home to preach the Gospel in some towns 
several miles away from the mission station. As he entered one town his at- 
tention was attracted by two women, whose conduct was very light and trifling, 
and who appeared to be watching some object under the eaves of the opposite 
house. "What was that shapeless object they were looking at? He drew near 
to see. It was a poor little boy, about three years old, reduced almost to a 
skeleton, but still breathing. Every rib in his little body might be seen, while 
his back appeared to be broken. By his side there was a raw cassada, (a kind 
of root somewhat like a potato), and a little gourd, holding water, which, with 
his poor, thin hand, he was trying to lift to his mouth. But the strength of 
the little fellow was unequal to it, and his low wailings of distress were most 
piteous, and filled the heart of the missionary with distress. He pointed the 
laughing women to the sufferings of the poor child ; but they laughed all the 
more at his concern. He then learned that the child was an orphan, and had 
become the charge of one of the women of the family. Either through her 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 403 

•ire taken from tlie parental and conjugal relationsliip. The inimit- 
able prayer, commencing, " Our Father wliich art in heaven," is a 
further recognition of the same thing. 

What, then, must be the religious eflFect of an institution which 
tramples these sacred relationships in the dust? 

In short, there is not, in our judgment, one distinctive attribute 
of chattel slavery which is not incompatible with the Golden Rule. 

The foregoing considerations, as it seems to us, are sufficient to 
justify the opposition which from the beginning we have manifested 
toward slavery ; for, be it remembered, this opposition is no new thing 
among us, but is coeval with our very existence as a Christian organ- 
ization. 

The opinions of our revered founder need not be recounted here. 
Imbibing in larger measure, than was common in his day, the spirit 
of Him whose sympathies gush forth as an everlasting fountain toward 
the poor and the oppressed, Mr. Wesley uttered a testimony against 
slavery immortal as his own name. 

His genuine sons in the Gospel have followed his example. The 
Conference of 1780 declared " slavery to be contrary to the laws of 
God, man, and nature, and hurtful to society; contrary to the dictates 
of conscience and pure religion, and doing that which we would not 
that others should do unto us." 

The General Conference of 1784 declared the practice of slavehold- 
ing to be " contrary to the Golden Law of God, and contrary to the 
inalienable rights of mankind, as well as to every principle of the 
Revolution." The Conference say : " We think it our most bounden 
duty, therefore, to take immediately some effectual method to extir- 
pate this abomination from among us, and for that purpose we add 
the following to the rules of our society." 

Then followed a plan of emancipation, specifying the age at which 
every person held in slavery should be free, and declaring that no 

neglect, or from disease, it had become this miserable object, only a trouble to 
her, and she had left it there to die while she went to her farm in the bush! 

" Two or three native Christian young men were with the missionary, who 
proposed to take the child to a little out-station on the opposite side of the 
lake, and take care of it. What a contrast between the conduct of these yomg 
Christians and that of the women who had left that child to die, not caring 
what might become of it! And what made the diiference? Only tlie blessed 
Gospel; the entrance into their hearts of the knowledge of Him whose namo 
is love." — Central Christian Advocate, Feb., 1861. 



404 PULPIT POLITICS. 

person thereafter holding slaves should be admitted into the society 
or to the Lord's Supper till he had previously complied with these 
rules concerning slavery. A note followed these stringent measures, 
declaring that they were to aflTect the members no further than they 
were consistent with the laws of the States in which they resided ; and 
also, in view of peculiar circumstances, giving the members in Vir- 
ginia two years in which to comply with these regulations. As these 
measures were admitted to constitute a new term of membership, all 
persons were allowed to choose between voluntarily retiring and being 
expelled. 

About six months after, it was thought best to suspend, for the 
time, the execution of these rules, and give the members a longer 
time before the minute should be enforced. The suspension proved 
to be indefinite, but immediately following the suspension is the dec- 
laration : "We do hold in the deepest abhorrence the practice of 
slavery, and shall not cease to seek its destruction by all wise and 
prudent means." In 1789, the General Rule read : " The buying and 
selling the bodies and souls of men, women, or children, with an in- 
tention to enslave them." In 1792, it read : " The buying or selling of 
men, women, or children, with an intention to enslave them." From 
1808 until now, the rule has read as at present, no one knowing how 
the or came to be substituted by and. 

For seventy-six years the question at the head of our present chap- 
ter on slavery has remained substantially what it now is : " What shall 
be done for the extirpation of the evil of slavery ?" During all this 
period and more, there has no day intervened in which our Church 
has not testified against slavery as a great evil, and one whose extir- 
pation is to be sought by all lawful and Christian means. Nor has 
our acknowledged anti-slavery position been unproductive of good 
fruit. There is a power in the truth, when faithfully uttered, to influ- 
ence the conscience of inankind. The testimony which our Church 
has borne has done much toward the formation of a correct public 
opinion. Under its influence many thousands of slaves have been set 
free ; and many thousands, who otherwi.se would have been slavehold- 
ers, have refrained ; and many thousands more, who are still holding 
slaves, are doing so with consciences ill at ease. But for this testi- 
mony a number of western States, now free, and embracing a vast 
range of territory, would probably to-day be slave States. 

These facts are our answer to the question : " What good has our 
church-action on the subject ever done?" Is it a small thing that 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCU AND SLAVERY. 405 

thousands of immortal beings have been delivered from bondage ; 
that thousands more have been restrained from oppressing their fel- 
low-men ; and that regions of country, by many times larger than 
some of the mightiest empires of the earth, have been secured to 
freedom? 

To the charge that we are violating the laws of the land, a brief 
answer must suffice. If we choose to keep as free as we can from the 
evils of slavery, how do we thus violate the laws of the land? Do 
the laws of the land require the members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church to hold slaves ? How do we then violate the laws by declin- 
ing to hold them? Must we practice every evil which the laws will 
permit, lest we be charged with violating them ? 

While we have no sympathy with, but, on the other hand, strongly 
condemn the mad projects of reckless and desperate men, who, in de- 
fiance of law, seek, by violent means, either to establish or destroy 
slavery, we earnestly pray that the time may soon come when, through 
the blessed principles of the Gospel of peace, slavery shall cease 
throughout the length and breadth of this fair land. 

But why should we seek any change in our Discipline, if it has 
worked so well? 

We answer, 1. Much of our present Chapter on Slavery has become 
obsolete by the changed circumstances since its introduction, and the 
chapter is now, in consequence, no sufficient answer to the question 
with which it commences. Owing to the present laws of many of the 
slave States, the Rule in the chapter can have no practical application 
where we have any considerable membership. 

Again, the chapter, by making one rule for official and another for 
private members of the Church, fails, we think, to embody our real 
doctrine on the subject of which it treats. We do not see the pro- 
priety of having one rule for the class-leader and another for the mem- 
bers of his class ; one rule for the trustee and another for the member 
sitting by his side ; one rule for a steward and another for the person of 
whom he collects quarterage. Such discriminations, we presume, will 
be admitted to be without any sufficient foundation, and we believe 
they are practically disregarded. 

2. Within a comparatively recent period diflerences of opinion have 
sprung up as to the bearing our present General Rule has on the sub- 
ject of slaveholding. A few among us have contended that the Rule 
condemns only the African slave trade ; others believe that it con- 
demns both the foreign and domestic traffic ; others, that while it con- 



406 PULPIT POLITICS. 

demns the traffic, it tliereby legalizes the holding of slaves ; others, and 
we'think by far the larger portion, hold that while the Eule in express 
terms conde-mns the traffic for a certain purpose, it also, by fair impli- 
cation, condemns the holding for the same purpose. 

To this last view we ask a somewhat more particular attention. 
What is the specific thing which the terms of the General Rule for- 
bid ? Not the buying or selling of a human being simply, but the buy- 
ing or selling loith an intention to enslave. The buying or selling with 
an intention to free is not forbidden. What, then, is the meaning of 
the qualifying phrase, '■'■with the intention to enslave them?'' This 
question can admit of but one answer. The person has already been 
reduced to slavery before he can be either bought or sold. Even in 
the foreign slave trade the persons have been seized and reduced to 
slavery before they come into the hands of the trader; and in the 
domestic traffic the persons bought or sold are already in a state of 
slavery. What, then, we repeat, is the meaning of the phrase, ^^ with 
the intention to enslave them?" The only answer that can be given 
is, it means with the intention to continue them in slavery, by continu- 
ing to hold and use them as slaves ; or, as in the case of selling, put- 
ting it in the power of others to continue them in slavery. 

What, then, is it which, in the eye of the Rule, gives criminality to 
the act of buying or selling ? The only answer is, it is the intention 
to enslave them ; that is, the intention to continue their enslavement. 
This is what clothes the act of buying or selling with moral turpitude. 
It is the enslaving, therefore, by the continued holding and using as 
slaves, which gives criminality to the buying and selling. The holding 
and using are the only stimulus to the guilty traffic. We conclude, 
therefore, that as the holding and using are the only stimulating causes 
for the traffic, and as the intention to continue their enslavement is 
the only sinful element, so far as the Rule condemns it, the spirit of 
the Rule must condemn the holding and the using, as well as the buy- 
ing and selling. The intention which gives criminality to an act, and 
without which the act would not be criminal, must itself be criminal. 

We do not affirm that the holding of a slave is, under all circum- 
stances, sinful ; nor is the buying or selling. Otherwise it would be 
wrong to purchase a slave, even to free him. And the moral right 
to purchase a slave to free him involves also the moral right to hold 
the legal relation of owner to that slave until the benevolent intention 
of freeing can be carried into execution. So when, owing to what- 
evei circumstances the immediate sundering of the legal relation 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. . 40 1 

would be manifestly a greater injury to the slave than its temporary 
continuance ; and when the evident intention is to give fi-eedom at the 
earliest practical moment, such an act of holding is not only not wrong, 
but it may be a duty. It is something necessary to be done in order 
to confer permanent freedom upon the person so held. In such a case 
the holder is not released from the obligation to give unto the servant 
" that which is just and equal," and to guard with the most religious 
care the sacred and divine rights of the conjugal and parental rela- 
tions, and to see by all means that such legal provisions as are prac- 
ticable shall be made to prevent such persons and their posterity from 
passing into perpetual slavery. 

From the foregoing considerations it appears to us that the General 
Kule should, in plain words, embody the honest doctrine of the Church, 
as well on the subject of slaveliolding as on that of the slave traffic. If 
the traffic for mercenary and selfish purposes should be condemned, so 
also should the holding. And if, as is almost universally admitted 
among us, the spirit of the Rule condemns mercenary and selfish slave- 
holding, then why may we not clothe this spirit in a visible hodi/^ and 
insert the word holding in our present Rule, subject to the same dis- 
criminating clause as the buying and selling ? Such a rule would read : 
" The baying, selling, or holding of men, women, or children, with an 
intention to enslave them." This, we think, is only embodying in 
plain language the true doctrine of our Church on the subject. 

So long ago as the year 1840, our bishops, in their Episcopal Ad- 
dress, in view of the diiferent interpretations put upon the General 
Rule, desired the General Conference, then in session in Baltimore, to 
give an official exposition of it. The following is their language : 

" We think it proper to invite your attention in particular to one 
point intimately connected with it, [the subject of slavery,] and, as we 
conceive, of primary importance. It is in regard to the true import 
and application of the General Rule on Slavery. The difi"erent con- 
structions to which it has been subjected, and the variety of views 
which have been entertained upon it, together with the conflicting acts 
of some of the annual conferences. North and South, seem to require 
that, a body having legitimate jurisdiction, should express a clear and 
definite opinion, as a uniform guide to those to whom the administra- 
tion of the Discipline is committed." This address is signed by R. R. 
Roberts, Joshua Soule, Elijah Iledding, James 0. Andrew, Beverly 
Waugh, and T. A. Morris. 

Without expressing an opinion here, as to the constitutional right 



408 PULPIT POLITICS. 

of the General Conference to place an official and legal exposition of 
the General Rule in the Discipline, without the concurrence of the 
annual conferences, we judge it the more prudent course that the ex- 
position should be embodied in the Rule itself, by a process which can 
leave no doubt as to its constitutionality. 

We therefore recommend for adoption the following resolutions : 
Resolved, 1. By the delegates of the several annual conferences in 
General Conference assembled, that we recommend the amendment of 
the General Rule on Slavery, so that it shall read : " The buying, sell- 
ing, or holding of men, women, or children, with an intention to enslave 
them." 

[This resolution required a vote of two-thirds to carry it. There were 138 votes 
cast for it, and 74 against it, so it was lost. See Journal, pp. 244-246. — Editor.] 

Resolved, 2. That we recommend the suspension of the 4th Restrict- 
ive Rule, for the purpose set forth in the foregoing resolution. 

[This resolution was laid on the table, inasmuch as the first resolution failed. 
See Journal, page 262.— Editor.] 

Resolved, 3. By the delegates of the several annual conferences in 
General Conference assembled, that the following be, and hereby is, 
substituted in the place of the seventh chapter on slavei-y : 

Question. What shall be done for the extirpation of the evil of 
slavery ? 

Answer. We declare that we are as much as ever convinced of the 
great evil of slavery. We believe that the buying, selling, or holding 
of human beings as chattels is contrary to the laws of God and nature, 
inconsistent with the Golden Rule, and with that Rule in our Discipline 
which requires all who desire to remain among us to " do no harm, 
and to avoid evil of every kind." We, therefore, affectionately ad- 
monish all our preachers and people to keep themselves pure from 
this great evil, and to seek its extirpation by all lawful and Christian 
means. (7) 

C. KiNGSLEY, Chairman. 

B. F. Crary, Secretary. 

[For the action of the conference amending and adopting the third resolution, 
and adopting the report as a whole and as amended, sec Journal, pages 259, 
262. -Editok.] 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 409 



MINORITY REPORT ON SLAVERY. 

The Minority nf the Committee on Slavery appointed by this Gen- 
eral Conference to take into consideration the interests of the Church 
in relation to this ,<;rave and perplexing subject, and also its duty in 
the premises, being unable to agree with the majority of the Com- 
mittee, and believing that the present occasion demands at oar hands 
a full exposition of our principles, submit the following report: 

In order to present our position on this question with entire cleai 
ness, we ask attention to the following 

FACTS OF HISTORY. 

Up to 1844 we remained an undivided Church, wonderfully owned 
of God, and eminently successful in spreading Scriptural holiness 
over these lands ; our ministers went to and fro, and the knowledge 
of God was greatly increased ; the people felt and acknowledged the 
power of our anti-slavery Gospel, and by thousands were converted 
and gathered into our Methodist fold. In no part of this country 
did oar Church find more ftwor and meet with more success than in 
the slaveholding States. Firm in our convictions, and honest in our 
avowal of them, we placed our Discipline in the hands of the slave- 
holder, containing provisions which limited his authority over the 
slave, and made him in reality the slave's guardian, under the super- 
vision of the Church. In short, we taught the converted slaveholder 
to look upon his slave as an immortal being, and to provide for his 
moral and religious cultivation, by " teaching him to read the Word 
of God, and allowing him time to attend public worship on our regular 
days of divine service." Under this Scriptural Discipline we were 
instrumental in converting both masters and slaves, besides breaking 
the yoke from the neck of thousands even in those States where 
emancipation was not possible by law, except under great difficulties. 

This was our condition as a Church when the General Conference 
of 1844 held its session. An episcopacy till then untarnished by con- 
nection with slavery had become implicated in the great evil, in the 
person of one of our bishops. Then came the trial of our anti-slav- 
ery principles, and the Border was true to its trust. The South 
contended that as the laws of the State in which the bishop lived 
would not permit emancipation, the General Conference should not 
interfere in the case. The majority of the delegates insisted that as 
a bishop was required "to travel through the connection at large," 



410 PULPIT POLITICS. 

"any connection witli slavery would embarrass both him and the 
Church in the performance of his duties," and declared their judg- 
ment to be that Bishop Andrew should cease from the exercise of 
episcopal functions until he could relieve himself of this impediment. 
Then followed that separation which has become one of the great facts 
of ecclesiastical history. In this contest for anti-slavery principles 
no portion of the Church was more inflexibly true to our Discipline 
than that which is now the Border. 

Returning to their homes, the Border delegates discerned (what has 
since proved to be a well-grounded apprehension) a new source of 
danger in the preponderance given to the North by this separation. 
Already had the spirit of ultraism begun to agitate portions of the 
Church, and fears were entertained that innovations, destructive to 
the peace of the Border conferences, wovild be proposed and effected. 
These fears were, to some extent, quieted by the assurance that our 
Northern churches were true to the interests of the Border, and would 
faithfully resist all attempts to destroy its power, or to change the 
Discipline. These assurances were corroborated by the sympathy 
expressed for the Border in the organs of the Church generally, and 
the decided action of at least one of the New England conferences. 
The Christian Advocate and Journal asked, about this very time, the 
direct question : " Does New England propose to contend for a Rule 
of Discipline which shall make the emancipation of slaves by those 
who hold them a condition of membership?" Zion's Herald replied : 
"Deeming it both unjust and impolitic, it is her intention to abide 
by the Constitution of the Church as it noio is, and to use her consti- 
tutional powers for the extirpation of slavery as prudence, the best 
interests of the whole Church, and the Providence of God may 
demand." 

New England sustained the Herald in this declaration, and the 
Providence Conference, to show its sincerity, and to quiet the fears 
of the Border brethren, at its session in 1847, passed the following, 
by a rising vote of 54 to 4 : 

^^ Resolved, That we are satisfied with the Discipline of the Church, 
as it is, on the subject of slavery ; and as we have never proposed 
any alteration in it, so neither do we now ; and that, in connection 
with our brethren of the other conferences, we loill ever abide hi/ it." 

This same conference, at a subsequent session, reaffirmed the pledge 
previously made, as follows : " We pledge ourselves to maintain the 
same conservative and true anti-slavery ground by which the Provi- 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUKCU AND SLAVERY. 411 

dence Conference has already become distinguislied." The late Pres- 
ident Olin, about the same time, addressed a letter to the East through 
its i^aper, Zion's Herald, declaring that, as the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, was now gone, the internal controversy should now be 
considered as closed, and the Church should turn its energies to its 
great interests, namely : missions, revivals, education, etc. This was 
not only the sentiment of New England, but of the whole Church, and 
was fully indorsed by its official action. In support of this, we call 
attention to the fact the General Conference of 1848 appointed no 
Committee on Slavery, and but one petition was presented on the 
subject. The same General Conference abolished the "plan of sep- 
aration," and took under its care the scattered membership which had 
been cut off by that plan in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri. 

It created conferences there, and thousands have been converted 
and gathered into the Church in those States. ' The sentiment of the 
Church remained substantially the same during the four succeeding 
years. 

At the General Conference of 1852 no committee was appointed ou 
slavery, and only seventeen petitions v/ere presented on the subject. 
These facts are not only significant, but they are conclusive. The 
General Conference was satisfied with the position of the Border 
churches, and the membership North gave these suffering brethren 
their most hearty support. 

During the eight years immediately succeeding "the separation," 
the Church, in her official action and sympathy, was faithful to her 
pledge to abide by the Discipline as it is. 

In 1850, the danger of future aggressions, on the part of the North 
and East, was distinctly foreshadowed ; and between the sessions of the 
General Conference, in 1852 and 1856, this agitation on the question 
of slavery in the Church made its first real development. The papers 
in those portions of the Church began to denounce their brethren on 
the Border, and this so far influenced the popular opinion in the 
North as to shake its confidence in the ministry of these conferences. 
Here was the origin of the outside pressure, which the North now pleads 
as the only reason why the Discipline shoidd he changed on the subject. 

In the General Conference of 185G, the first official efibrt to change 
the Discipline was made by the ministry of the North, without the 
support of the membership. Out of 790,000 not quite 5,000 petitioned 
for a change, and most of these were obtained by the personal efforts of 
preachers. That this first act of aggression was made by the ministry 



412 PULPIT POLITICS. 

was admitted in 1856. The reason assigned was that twenty-nine 
annual conferences out of thirty-eight had asked the General Con- 
ference to make a change in our Discipline on the subject of slavery. 
In obedience to this demand the first Committee on Slavery for eight 
years was appointed, and a report presented in accordance with their 
views. That report presented two propositions : one for a general 
rule by the constitutional process to prohibit " the buying, selling, or 
holding of a human being as property ;" the other for a new chapter 
making slaveholding prima facie evidence of guilt, and declaring the 
man, charged with this oflfense, to be guilty until he proved himself 
innocent. That chapter was laid on the table, and the new rule failed 
to receive the vote necessary to send it to the annual conferences. 
The failure of this first efii"ort on the part of the ministry only re-- 
doubled their exertions. They have, during the four years past, 
employed both the piflpit and the press to the utmost extent in pre- 
paring the sentiment of the Church for action at the present Session. 

This controversy has been marked by most peculiar features, and 
attended with the most deplorable results. Churches in the North 
have been torn and severed, new and independent societies have been 
organized, papers in opposition to official organs supported, the friend- 
ship of years destroyed, confidence and fraternal affection between the 
North and the Border lost, our preachers mobbed by lawless and pro- 
slavery men, and bitterness of feeling engendered, until it has become 
almost impossible for us to become a united people. 

There are now two parties in the Church, the one contending for an 
alteration in our Discipline on the subject of slavery, and the other 
opposed. The question vital to the issue, therefore, is : Which one 
of these two parties has changed its position ? We answer most em- 
phatically. The Border has not. The Border was truly anti-slavery 
in 1844; it is as truly so now. It resisted the encroachments of the 
South then ; it resists the encroachments of the South now. It has 
steadily resisted the South till this present moment, at fearful cost 
and constant conflict. It has resisted pro-slavery, assaults in the 
pulpit, on the platform, and through the press. The Border has 
stood faithfully to the Discipline, under the charge of pro-slaveryism 
from the North, and of abolitionism from the South. It has never 
denied being anti-slavery ; it could not if it would, and would not if 
it could. The Border stands now where it has ever stood, and 
though pressed sorely by the friends it has never forsaken, and by 
the foes it has always resisted, its representatives come to this General 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 413 

Conference, asking for no change in tlie Discipline, and willing to 
abide by it as it is. We have always taught, and still teach, that 
slaveholding, for mercenary and selfish purposes, is wrong; but we 
have never held that the relation of master to slave, when either 
necessary or merciful, is sinful. On this principle we have received 
the slaveholder into the Church, and by it we have regulated our 
administration. If in any case the administration has been defective, 
it has been the exception, and not the rule. While our brethren in 
the North and Northwest have yielded to the pressure of an ultra- 
ism which, by their own action, they have largely contributed to 
create, we still battle for old-fashioned, anti-slavery Methodism. No 
human administration can be perfect, and our Border brethren do not 
claim that theirs is any exception to this rule ; but they do claim that 
integrity of purpose has characterized their action. With the laws 
of the State against emancipation, so far as to prevent the liberated 
slave from enjoying freedom without the liability of being arrested 
and expatriated, they have, by their moral influence and discipline, 
lifted the yoke of bondage from the necks of thousands, who, with 
their children, are now contented and happy. Of late, owing to the 
agitated state of the country, their influence has been, to some extent, 
limited, but for this the Church of the Border is not responsible. 
This is the position claimed for itself by the Border, and the claim 
is sustained by the testimony of others. 

The bishops, in their Address to the General Conference of 1856, 
gave the results of their observation in regard to the position and 
moral influence of our churches on the Border. In the Episcopal 
Address of the present session, they reafiirm their statements, and 
refer the General Conference to the language used by them in 1856. 
The following is the passage referred to, namely : 
" In our administration in the territory where slavery exists, we 
have been careful not to transcend, in any instance or in any respect, 
what we understood to be the will and direction of the General Con- 
ference. That body having retained its jurisdiction over conferences 
previously existing in such territory, and having directed the organ- 
ization of additional Conferences, it becomes our duty to arrange the 
districts, circuits, and stations, and to superintend them as an integral 
part of the Church. As the result, we have have six annual confer- 
ences which are wholly or in part slave territory. These conferences 
have a white church-membership, including probationers, of more 
than one hundred and thirty-six thousand, with the attendants upon 



414 PULPIT POLITICS. 

our ministry, making a probable population of between five and six 
hundred thousand. They have a colored church-membership, includ- 
ing probationers, of about twenty-seven thousand, with the attendants 
upon our ministry, making a probable population of upward of one 
hundred thousand. A portion of this population are slaves. The 
others are mostly poor. They are generally strongly attached to the 
Church of their choice, and look to it confidingly for ministerial 
services, religious sympathy, and all the ofl&ces of Christian kindness. 
The white membership in these conferences, in respect to intelligence, 
piety, and attachment to Methodist discipline and economy, will com- 
pare favorably with other portions of the Church. 

"In our judgment, the existence of these conferences and churches, 
under their present circumstances, does not tend to extend or perpet- 
uate slavery. They are known to be organized under a Discipline 
which characterizes slavery as a great evil ; which makes the slave- 
holder ineligible to any official station in the Church, where the laws 
of the State in which he lives will admit of emancipation, and permit 
the liberated slave to enjoy freedom ; which disfranchises a traveling 
minister who by any means becomes the owner of a slave or slaves, 
unless he executes, if it be practicable, a legal emancipation of such 
slaves, conformably to the laws of the State wherein he lives ; which 
makes it the duty of all the ministers to enforce upon all the mem- 
bers the necessity of teaching their slaves to read the Word of God, 
and allowing them time to attend upon the public worship of God on 
our regular days of divine service ; which prohibits the buying and 
selling of men, women, and children, with an intention to enslave 
them, and inquires what shall be done for the extirpation of slavery ? 

" With this Discipline freely circulated among the people, or cer- 
tainly within the reach of any who desire to examine it, and with 
other Churches existing in the same territory without these enact- 
ments, these societies and conferenee& have, cither by elective affinity, 
adhered to, or from preference, associated with, the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. In a few instances their church-relations have exposed 
thera to some peril, and in numerous cases to sacrifice. But such 
have been their moral worth, and Christian excellence, and prudent 
conduct, that generally they have been permitted to enjoy their relig- 
ious immunities, and serve and worship God according to their con- 
sciences." 

This testimony of the bishops, in 1856, was corroborated by the 
delegates from the Border, and the Committee on Slavery appointed 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AXD SLAVERY. 415 

at that session confirmed its truth by the following hmguagc, wliicli 
forms part of their report, namely : 

"It is also affirmed and believed that the administrators of Disci- 
pline within the bounds of slave territory have faithfully done all 
that in their circumstances they have conscientiously judged to be in 
their power, to answer the ends of the Discipline in exterminating 
that great evil." 

Such is the position of the Church on the "Border, and it is the posi- 
tion held by most of the members of this General Conference. Very 
few indeed of the members of this body believe or teach that slave- 
holding, except for mercenary or selfish purposes, ought to be made 
a test of membership. Our view of the subject is sustained by the 
Scriptures, and also by Mr. Wesley, who received slaveholders into 
his societies, and is in strict accordance with the instructions given by 
the Wesleyan Connection to their missionaries in Jamaica. These 
instructions are in the following words, namely : 

" As in the colonies in which you are called to labor a great propor- 
tion of the inhabitants are in a state of slavery, the Committee must 
strongly call to your recollection what was so fully stated to you when 
you were accepted as missionaries to the West Indies, that your only 
business is to promote the moral and religious improvement of the 
slaves to whom you may have access, without, in the least degree, in 
public or private, interfering with their civil condition." Who, then, 
have changed position on this subject? The Border preachers have 
NOT. The change of ground is with those who ask for an altered 
Discipline, a new term of membership. 

In conclusion, the minority respectfully submit, 1. That the action 
proposed in the report of the majority has been recommended without 
the proper consideration, in Committee, of the documents referred to 
them by the General Conference, which, in our judgment, the gravity 
and importance of the subject demand. 

2. The minority further represent, that the desire of the Church at 
large for any important change in our rules on the subject of slavery 
is not sufficiently indicated in the petitions that have been referred to 
this Committee to demand such action as is set forth in the report of 
the majority. The whole number of petitioners is less than one in 
twenty of the entire membership, and in those Conferences that have 
Bpoken most largely, two-thirds of the entire membership have re- 
mained silent. (8) 

3. The action of the Annual Conference, as expressed in their 



416 PULPIT POLITICS. 

recorded votes, does not indicate such a desire for a constitutional 
change as to call on this General Conference to inaugurate an attempt 
to secure it by sending down a new rule for their action. This will 
be evident if we consider that, taking the highest vote obtained in 
the several Annual Conferences by any single measure, it falls short, 
to the extent of over five hundred of the requisite number among 
those voting, and falls short more than three thousand of three- 
fourths of the whole number of the traveling preachers in the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church. 

4. The change in the General Rule proposed in the report of the 
majority is still further objected to, in that the action they recommend 
approaches nearest in form to the one coming from the Providence 
Conference, and would be likely to be understood by our people as 
embodying the spirit of that most objectionable of all the changes 
which had been previously proposed. 

5. The form of the chapter proposed in the report of the majority, 
the minority confidently believe will not be considered by the Church 
as embodying sufficient advantages over the present chapter to war- 
rant the risk incurred in making any change. Though being intended 
only as a declaration of sentiment, as it is placed in what is regarded 
as a book of ecclesiastical law, it may become a source of embarass- 
ment by being misunderstood by our people and misrepresented by 
our enemies, 

6. The minority further represent, that the action proposed in the 
report of the majority will very greatly embarrass and cripple, if it 
does not altogether destroy our Church in the slaveholding States 
and along the border. It is especially calculated to do this in the 
present highly excited state of the public mind in that territory. 

7. The minority still further believe that such a result would in- 
volve a loss of position and influence in slaveholding territory, by the 
most decidedly anti-slavery Church among the larger denominatioa« 
of the land, which it might require many long years to regain. Such 
a surrender of advantages now possessed must be deprecated by every 
one who sincerely asks, '' What shall be done for the extirpation of the 
evil of slavery ? ' ' 

8. It is further objected to the action proposed, (hat it would oper- 
ate most disastrously upon the interests of the enslaved. It would 
not only deprive them of ministrations by which thousands of them 
have been blessed and saved, but from those by whom their emanci- 
pation can only be secured it would withdraw the influence of that 



* METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY, 417 

Cliurch, in regard to whicli the majority of the Committee on Slavery 
in 1856 say: "It is affirmed and believed that it has done more to 
diffuse anti-slavery sentiments, to mitigate the evils of the system, 
and to abolish the institution from civil society, than any other or- 
ganization, either political, social, or religious." 

9. The members of the minority representing conferences located 
in non-slaveholding territory also submit, that the action proposed in 
the report of the majority would, in its results, as admitted by the 
majority (in committee) themselves, expose our ministerial brethren 
and their families, in the Border work, to privations and perils which, 
while they ought not to be shrunk from, if necessary to maintain up- 
rightness and truth, yet, if brought about without sufficient cause, 
might properly be considered an unbrotherly recklessness as to their 
condition, specially calculated to alienate them from us in spirit and 
affection. 

10. The testimony of the representatives of the work on the Pacific 
coast in this Committee, impresses us with the conviction that the 
results of the action proposed in the report of the majority would be 
highly disastrous in that quarter, destroying much of the fruit of their 
past labor, and greatly retarding the work for many years to come. 

11. The minority are still further impressed with the conviction 
that among the results of the action proposed in the majority report, 
one painfully probable is the enfeebling of the prestige and moral 
power of the whole Church by the strifes and divisions that may ensue, 
which will greatly incapacitate her for the performance of that grand 
work, both at home and abroad, to which God in his providence is 
now so evidently calling her, in this the opening of the second century 
of her history, and in which, if her resources and influence are 
properly husbanded and guarded, she may achieve so eminent and 
glorious a success. 

12. The minority are not insensible to the fact that an embarrass- 
ing pressure, produced by misrepresentations of our anti-slavery 
position, is felt in some portions of our work in non-slaveholding 
territory ; but they believe that this may be relieved by a distinct 
and emphatic testimony on the subject, in a mode which would not 
involve the disas-ters apprehended from the course to which they 
object. They, therefore, recommend the adoption of the following 

RESOLUTIONS : 

Resolved^ 1. That the Methodist Episcopal Church has, in good 
faith, in all the periods of its history, proposed to itself the question, 

27 



418 PULPIT POLITICS. 

'■ What shall be done for the extirpation of the evil of slavery ?" and 
it has never ceased, openly before the world, to bear its testimony 
against the sin, and to exercise its disciplinary powers to the end that 
its members might be kept unspotted from criminal connection with 
the system, and that the evil itself be removed from among us. 

Resolved, 2. That any change of our Discipline upon the subject 
of slavery in the present highly-excited condition of the country 
would accomplish no good whatever, but, on the contrary, would 
seriously disturb the peace of our Church, and would be especially 
disastrous to our ministers and members in the slave States. 

Resolved, 3. That the Committee on the Pastoral Address be in- 
structed to state our position in relation to slavery, and to give such 
counsel to our churches as may be suited to the necessities of the 
ease. 

John S. Porter, Chairman. 
P. CoOMBE, Secretary. 

Buffalo, May 16, 1860. 

REMARKS OX THE PRECEDING ECCLESIASTICAL ACTION. 

(1) The attempt to enforce a rule of the Church, excluding 
slaveholders from its communion, having failed, and the neces- 
sity of dropping it altogether in the South, argues a very differ- 
ent state of public sentiment, in the days of early Methodism, 
in relation to slavery, from what has been supposed to have ex- 
isted. The duty of emancipation could not have been a common 
sentiment, otherwise the Rule of the Church on slavery would 
have been easily enforced. That it had to be abandoned, in 
both the North and the South, is conclusive on this question. 
In this fact we find another ground for setting aside the abo- 
lition interpretation of the Constitution, which claims that it 
must be understood as anti-slavery, because the sentiment of the 
country was then opposed to the institution. No such general 
hostility to slavery prevailed throughout the country ; and even 
in the States where emancipation was finally adopted, the feel- 
ing in its favor was by no means unanimous. 

(2) It will be noted, that as early as 1824, the General Con- 
ference made provision for the distinct organization of churches 
of the colored people, and for employing colored men as travel- 
ing preachers. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 419 

(3) The resolutions of General Conference, in 1836, in con- 
demnation of abolitionism, are very pointed, and afford unmis- 
takable evidence of the wisdom of the bishops in laying a strong 
hand upon it as a dangerous movement both to Church and 
State. 

(4) Here are considerations, weighty, indeed, presented by 
the bishops, in favor of a firm reliance upon the Gospel as the 
means of meliorating the condition of the slaves, and agninst 
clerical interference in civil affairs. Had these admonitions of 
1840 been heeded by the Methodist ministry, that Church, as 
well as our beloved Union, might now have been a unit, instead 
of being broken into fragments. 

(5) The remarks of the bishops, in 1844, upon the subject of 
abolition petitions, and the neglect of the negro population, are 
well worthy the most deliberate consideration. 

(6) The declaration of the committee of the General Confer- 
ence, at Indianapolis, 1856, that the Methodist Church " has 
done more to diffuse anti-slavery sentiments," " and to abolish 
the institution from civil society, than any other organization, 
either political, social, or religious," was a proud boast, and may 
have been a truth. But, if so, where was the necessity for such 
boasting ? If it had affected the committee alone ; if it had been 
confined to the North, all would have been well, perhaps ; but it 
flew upon the wings of the lightning to the extreme South ; and 
there, in consequence of the claims here set up, the Methodist 
Church was pronounced an abolition organization, having in 
view the promotion of the abolition of slavery wherever she set 
her foot. Had not the committee set up such high claims, be- 
fore Conference, for the efiiciency of Methodism as an instru- 
ment in the promotion of emancipation, the soil of Texas would 
not have drank up the blood of the humble Methodist minister 
who was martyred on the suspicion that he was an emissary of 
abolition. 

(7) It will be seen that, in the General Conference of 1860, 
the alteration of the Rule on Slavery was not carried — there 
not being two-thirds of the members in its favor. The chapter 
on Slavery, however, was altered so as to conform to the aboli- 



■420 PULPIT POLITICS. 

tion sentiment in the Church — it requiring only a majority vote 
for its adoption. 

(8) This authoritative statement, coming from the Committee 
of Conference, that two-thirds of the entire membership of the 
Methodist Church have remained silent, while only one-third 
had signed the abolition memorials — confirms the opinions here- 
tofore expressed, that the great majority of the members, in 
nearly all the churches which have legislated on the subject of 
slavery, have been opposed to the action of their ecclesiastical 
courts. In this fact, we are to look for the origin of all the 
evils to Church and State which have flowed from the ecclesi- 
astical legislation on the subject of slavery. Conservative Chris- 
tian men have remained silent, while their fanatical brethren 
have been allowed to occupy public attention, so as to create 
the impression that abolition sentiments were in the ascendancy 
at the North. Had the facts been clearly known — had con- 
servative men come boldly forward to rebuke and repudiate the 
fanatics who were troubling the land — we should, at this day, 
have seen our churches undivided, our Union existing in har- 
mony, and our people in the enjoyment of their wonted pros- 
perity. The responsibility of the evils which have befallen us 
must rest upon the conservative men who, for the sake of peace, 
have neglected to lift up a standard against the errors of aboli- 
tionism. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 

Some notice is taken of the Congregational Cliurches, in their 
relations to slavery, in Chapter III. To aiford a more definite 
view of their position on the great question of the day — forcihle 
emancipation — we here append some extracts from two docu- 
ments, which may be taken as representing the opinions of Con- 
gregationalists in general. 

So universally have this body occupied abolition ground, as we 
have been told by one of their most intelligent clergymen, that 
we have not considered it important to gather up in detail their 
Church action upon slavery. Their present position will be un- 
derstood by what follows : 

1. The General Association of New York held its twenty- 
eighth annual session at Binghamton last week.* 

A committee upon the " state of the country," consisting of Rev. 
J. P. Thompson, D. D., J. Butler, and H. N. Dunning, reported 
a series of resolutions which, after debate and amendment, were 
adopted. There was a deep and strong feeling in the meeting 
that slavery, as the original cause and fountain of our national 
troubles — as the serpent of evil which has entered our garden of 
liberty, to beguile us into sin and ruin, should not be left un- 
touched by the nation in this eventful crisis, (1) that the occasion 
which the providence of God has offered, ought to be seized, to 
inflict upon its head a final and fatal blow. Some hesitation, 
however, was felt in insisting upon any particular measures as 
means of its destruction, which might embarrass the Administra- 
tion, though it was felt that the public mind ought to be prepared 

* New York Independent, Oct. 17, 1861. 

(421) 



422 PULPIT POLITICS. 

for this issue, and the Government urged for-^rard to confront and 
decide it in every way possible. 

The following are the resolutions as adopted : 

"It having pleased the Great Ruler of nations in his righteous 
sovereignty to visit this nation with the calamity of intestine war, 
crippling our industry, disabling our commerce, desolating large por- 
tions of our territory, and bringing anxiety and sorrow to thousanda 
of families ; — therefore, 

" Resolved, That we pledge to the Government our constant devo- 
tion and earnest support in its determination to suppress the iniqui- 
tous and formidable rebellion of the South, and to re-establish and 
enforce the authority of the Constitution over the whole Union, and 

•■ Whereas, The immediate occasion of this rebellion and its foment- 
ing spirit was the determination of its leaders to secure and perpetuate 
the system of slavery ; and whereas, there can be no guarantee of peace 
and prosperity in the IJnion while slavery exists ; — therefore. 

'■■Resolved, That we rejoice in every act and declaration of the Gov- 
ernment that brings freedom to any of the enslaved, and earnestly 
hope for some definite and reliable measure for the abolition of slav 
ery as the conclusion of this great conflict for the support of the Gov- 
ernment and the Union. 

•• Whereas, In his good providence, God has opened the way for the 
emancipation of the enslaved in this land, either by the instructions 
of the Government to military commanders to enfranchise all slaves 
within their several districts, or by general proclamation of the Presi- 
dent, or by act of Congress under the state of war ; — therefore, 

^'•Resolved, That it is our duty, as Christian patriots, in all propei 
ways to urge this measure upon the attention of the Government, and 
to pray for its consummation, lest the condemnation of those who 
knew their duty to the poor and oppressed, and did it not, should be 
visited upon the nation. 

" Resolved, That whatever the issue of the war upon slavery, and 
whatever political phases the question of slavery may hereafter as- 
sume, this Association will adhere to the testimony it has so often 
borne against the wickedness of holding human beings as property, 
and against the compound and stupendous iniquity of the whole sys- 
tem of slavery ; and that as our Congregational ministry and churches 
have been so far faithful and persistent in the past, in testifying against 
slavery as sinful, so they should continue faithful and unremitting in 
their opposition to it, until the iniquity shall be done away." 



congregational churches and slavery. 423 

2. Triennial Convention of Congregational Churches in 
THE Northwest.* 

The organic rules of the Chicago Theological Seminary pro- 
vide that in every third year it shall be the duty of the Board 
of Directors to call a Convention, consisting of one delegate from 
each of the Congregational Churches in the NorthAvest, and the 
ministers of the same, which Convention has the appointment of 
trustees, and has a right of perpetual patronage as founders of 
the Seminary. The Convention met at Chicago, Oct. 8th, 1861, 
and was attended by upward of 130 ministers and delegates. 

The " state of the country" also occupied the thoughts of the 
Convention. An able committee was early appointed, consisting 
of Prof. Joseph Haven, Hiram Footc, G. S. F. Savage, H. D. 
Kitchel, Asa Turner, H. L. Hammond, S. J). Cochran, S. Wol- 
cott, H. H. Hitchcock, and the second evening allotted to the 
consideration of their report. Eloquent speeches were made by 
Rev. Asa Turner, of Iowa, Dr. Charles Jewett, of Wisconsin, etc. 

" REPORT OP THE COMMITTEE. 

"AvS lovers of our country and of the cause and kingdom of Christ, 
it is with the deepest sadness that we look upon the present state of 
this nation, once united and prosperous, now distracted and torn 
asunder by civil war — a war which we can not but regard as ground- 
less — wicked in its origin, and of which the whole fearful responsi- 
bilities rest, and ever will rest, on those who, without provocation or 
any just cause, have conspired to overthrow the Government and sub- 
vert the Constitution under which we live. If we look about us for 
the source of the evils which now afflict us, we can find it only in 
the system of American slavery. Whatever other causes may have 
contributed to this result, they sink into comparative insignificance 
beside this prime source and prolific fountain of all our woes. It is 
this which has raised the standard of revolt ; it is this which has 
armed brother against brother, and State against State ; it is this 
which has crippled our industry, wasted our resources, devastated 
dur towns and cities, dishonored our flag, made desolate our homes, 
and brought such wide-spread confusion and disaster upon the nation. 
If we seek a remedy for these evils, we can find it only in tlie cradi- 

* New York Independent, October 17, 1861. 



424 PULPIT POLITICS. 

cation and utter subversion of that which has been their producing 
c-ause. Nothing short of this can or will reach the difficulty. The 
present wicked rebellion is purely a rebellion of the slaveholding 
portion against the rule of the majority, and against the principles 
which lie at the foundation of all purely democratic institutions. It 
can be brought to an end only by earnest and well-directed blows at 
that which is the real root of the evil. It is no time for compromises 
or sedatives. The black and bloody hand of African servitude is 
upon the throat of this nation, and we must break that arm, or it 
will strangle us. There can be no compromise with this gigantic 
wrong. There can be no peace, no division of territoi-y, no safe and 
permanent adjustment of any kind while this systejji continues. "We 
are one nation, one territory, and we ought and shall remain one 
people, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico — one from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific. Such are our profound convictions, our deliberate opin- 
ions ; and entertaining these sentiments, we can not, as a Convention 
of pastors and delegates representing the Congregational Churches 
of the several Northwestern States, consent to disperse without first 
bearing our united testimony to the truths which we have uttered, 
and which we more definitely express in the following resolutions : 

" Resolved, That the fearful strife in which our Government is now 
engaged with the armed traitors who have risen up against it, involv- 
ing, as it does, the defense of all that is dear to us as citizens and 
patriots, and of the principles that underlie all free institutions, is, in 
our view, a just and righteous war ; that we are bound, by every in- 
terest of Christian patriotism and civilization, to prosecute this contest 
with vigor, and, as speedily as possible, bring it to a triumphant con- 
clusion ; and that, in the efficient prosecution of this war, the Govern- 
ment has our profoundest sympathy, our most cordial support, and 
our most earnest prayers. 

^'■Resolved, That the present rebellion is, in our view, the direct 
and legitimate result of the system of American slavery, which is at 
once the radical cause and the main strength of the whole evil ; and 
that, consequently, the conflict can never be brought to a successful 
end till that system shall also forever terminate. 

" Resolved, That we can not but view, in the present war, the hand 
of Providence, that divine Arbiter and Ruler of nations, opening the 
way for the termination of this accursed system, this gigantic wrong j 
and we pray God that the heart of this great people and of this Gov- 
ernment may be brought to the fixed determination that that which 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. 425 

has brought this war upon us, shall itself be brought to a perpetual 
end ; (2) and that wherever our armies go, and our flag waves, under 
the whole heavens, there shall also go freedom and universal eman- 
cipation." 

REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING ARTICLES. 

(1) We have here a very apt illustration indeed. The framers 
of our Constitution found a barbarous people in their midst, to- 
tally unfitted for the rights of citizenship, and held in servitude 
under pre-existent customs and laws. Slavery, under the Con- 
stitution, was declared to be the " forbidden fruit," which was to 
remain untouched by the nation at large. The declaration, on 
this point, virtually was, " in the day thou eatest thereof, dying, 
thou shalt die." The serpent of abolition entered the " garden 
of liberty," at the Northern gate, and beguiled the inhabitants 
" into sin and ruin." From the day that abolitionism put forth 
its hand, from New England, in disobedience to the commands 
of the Constitution, to pluck the fruit of " the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil ;" from that day, briars and thorns have 
been springing up, wherever the serpent's trail has left its slime ; 
and the ruin now resting upon our Eden is traceable, directly, 
to those who, adopting abolition sentiments, taught treason to the 
Constitution in reference to the institution of slavery. 

(2) Abolitionism being at the fou'ndation of our national 
troubles, every true patriot can unite in the sentiment expressed 
by the Chicago resolutions, in the prayer to God, " that the heart 
of this great people and of this Government may be brought to 
the fixed determination that that which has brought this war 
upon us, shall itself be brought to a perpetual end ;" that aboli- 
tionism shall be crushed into non-existence, and secessionism 
forced to lay down its arms of rebellion, so that the Union may 
once more arise in its glory and its power ; and that, under 
our beneficent Constitution, the dominant race may continue to 
rise upward, and progress onward in intelligence and civiliza- 
tion, and the lowly continue to advance in personal comfort and 
Christian knowledge, until the millennial day shall find the whole 
human race redeemed from its long years of degradation. 



CHAPTER X. 

Section 1. — Rise op Political Abolitionism and the Un- 
constitutional Teachings of its Leaders. 

We have seen that the early clerical anti-slavery writers, in 
discussing the question of slavery, as it affected the moral stand- 
ing of church-members, believed they could thereby transfer the 
agitation of the subjiect to the arena of politics, and thus array 
the legislation of the country against the institution. It is true, 
that this party, in its efforts at religious reform, professed to have 
only in view the purification of the Church ; but the opinions 
propagated, and the measures adopted, served as a most efiicient 
basis for the organization of the Abolition party. The example 
of the Apostles, in their teachings on slavery, had been pronounc- 
ed an insufficient guide to the people of this age, and a doubt 
was thus thrown over the Scriptures as an infallible rule of moral 
conduct. A higher law than the Bible, as heretofore interpreted, 
was demanded for the exigencies of the times. As anticipated, 
the ecclesiastical legislation prepared pubic sentiment for politi- 
cal action, by creating an intense anti-slavery feeling among a 
portion of the members of the Church, who were ready to be 
roused into energetic effort for the overthrow of slavery, when- 
ever an opportunity offered. But for the votes that could be 
secured at the polls, from the ranks of the religious anti-slavery 
men, no political party would ever have made the slavery ques- 
tion a plank in its platform. In this fact is contained the demon- 
stration of the proposition, that the Churches are responsible for 
the political agitation of this subject, and for much of its deplor- 
able consequences. 

It was from the action of the Churches, almost exclusively, 
that Southern statesmen originally took the alarm, in relation to 

(426) 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — EY POLITICIANS. 427 

Northern interference with their institutions. But in oro-anizins: 
an opposition to this interference, they did not base their resist- 
ance upon tlie true grounds of their alarm — the fear of forcible 
emancipation. Other issues at first were made, so that an avowal 
of the real source of their fears could be avoided. This is appar- 
ent from the testimony of competent witnesses then residing in 
the slave States, one of whom we quote below.* No political 

••■ The following interesting extracts, descriptive of the condition and tenden- 
cies of Abolitionism, at the period when it had fully manifested its general 
character, are from the pen of Jeremiah Hubbard, Clerk of the Yearly Meet- 
ing of Friends in North Carolina, to a Friend in England. Wo copy from the 
■ Christian Intelligencer, of June, 1834 : 

" But I need not dwell much on the subject of universal emancipation, in 
stating the best or worst, or most probable results of such a measure, because 
the Southern people have no more idea of the general emancipation of slaves, 
without colonizing them, than the Northern people have of admitting the few 
among tliem to equal rights and privileges. Not even the friends of humanity 
here think that a general emancipation, to remain here, would better their con- 
dition ; and if they did, I believe that none of the slave States' laws admit of 
emancipation without sending them out of the State. And the ultra slavehold- 
ers are as much opposed to the Colonization Society as the Northern manumis- 
sionists are, and have, for several years past, been viewing its growing popu- 
larity, and the Northern policy in Congress, with great jealousy; which keeps 
tliem upon the ground of nullitication and the verge of rebellion, though they 
have other pretexts for it, such as the tariff, etc. But it is evident that slavery, 
or rather the genetal anticipation of its being abolished, is the primary cause 
of their discontent.'* ... It is a little singular, that the hardened slave- 
holders and the Northern nuinumissionists are so decidedly and bitterly op- 
posed to each other as to threaten a dangerous collision, and a political division 
of this government, and, at the same time, are offering and urging the same rea- 
sons for abolishing the Colonization Society. But here we will leave the slave- 
holders inclosed in their chariots of iron, with an iron grasp upon their slaves, 
bidding defiance to the denunciations and imprecations of the New England 
anti-slavites, and watching, with a jealous eye, the mild, gradually increasing 
influence of the Colonization Societ}-, and take a view of the plan of the Colo- 
nizatioTiist, and that of the Universal Manumissionist, without colonization, 
and see which of the two is likely to abolish slavery in America. 

"The primary object of the latter appears to be that of producing such a 
revolution in public sentiment as to cause the national legislation to be brought 
to bear directly on the slaveholders, and compel them to emancipate their slaves. 
And in order to effect this, they have formed themselves into a society, that they 



* We omit here his remarks in relation to Colonization, and the disposition of a few to melior* 

ate the condition of the slaves by that means, etc. 



428 PULPIT POLITICS. 

organizations for the overthrow of slavery had been effected in the 
North, when the hostility to a Protective Tariff, and the advocacy 
of the Nullification doctrines were first heard of at the South. 
But the action there, to guard against the evils of emancipation, 
by arresting all tendencies toward its adoption, only served to 
stimulate the efforts at the North for the promotion of that 
object. The anti-slavery men claimed that they had a right to 
use moral means for the removal of so great an evil as human 
bondage ; and that in so doing, either by Church action or indi- 

call the New England Anti-slavery Society; where they write and print a great 
many things against the evils of slavery, and against slaveholders and the Colo- 
nization Society, in a style and manner that savors more of the spirit of 
those who would ask for fire to come down from heaven to consume their ene- 
mies, than of those that would feed them if they were hungry, and if they were 
thirsty, give them drink. Their principal intrenchment appears to be in Boston, 
from whence they issue their periodicals, which, I suppose, they circulate pretty 
generally through the free States; but whenever one of the papers called the 
Libe-raior, edited by W. L. Garrison, chances to alight in any of the slave 
States, it is counted incendiary, and immediately proscribed. Their orators 
travel and lecture in the free States; there they propagate their doctrines or 
opinions of universal emancipation, coercion, etc., with much zeal and fluency, 
and, no doubt, with sincerity on the part of many of them ; but mark, my friend, 
they are too discreet, or too timid, to travel and attempt to propagate these views, 
and harangue in the slave States. The general course of their efforts, of late, 
puts me in mind of what Young says about working the ocean into a tempest, 
'to wnft a feather or to drown a fly.' . . . The plan of the Northern anti- 
slavites, instead of softening, appears to be hardening the slaveholders. . . . 
I would give thee a little specimen of Garrison's style and manner of writing ; in 
his opinion of the Colonization Society, he says : ' The superstructure of the Colo- 
nization Society rests upon the following pillars: 1st. Persecution; 2d. False- 
hood; 3d. Cowardice; 4th. Infidelity. If I do not prove the Colonization 
Society to be a creature without heart, without brains, eyeless, unnatural, hypo- 
critical, relentless, unjust, then nothing is capable of demonstration!' His 
language to slaveholders, or of slaveholders, is, 'They are hypocrites, mart- 
stealers; and such as hold ofiices in the United States,' he says, 'are guilty of 
corrupt perjury, and unless they repent, will have their part in the lake that 
burns with fire and brimstone.' This kind of language is not at all calculated 
to make good impressions on the minds of slaveholders, even on those of whom 
it may be true." 

One thing worthy of note is said by this venerable Quaker. The primary 
cause of discontent in the South, in 1834, was the general anticipation that 
slavery would be forcibly abolished by Northern influence. "What was true in 
1834 was equally true in 1860. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 429 

vidual effort, they were not violating the Constitution. To the 
Southern people, however, it mattered not whether their enemies 
employed moral suasion or physical force — logic, law, or lead — 
in promoting abolition measures, as the result to them would be 
the same — the loss of their property without their assent. 

When abolitionism became fairly ingrafted upon the church- 
anti-slavery stock, its votaries claimed the right to use both 
moral suasion and political means to eflfect the abolition of slav- 
ery. Their plans of operation, in the main, contemplated the 
aggregate action of the States in the production of this result, 
by an amendment of the Constitution ; or, in the event of the 
failure of this measure, some of them were determined, as a 
last resort, to effect a dissolution of the Union. The northern 
States, in abolishing slavery, had done so by their own uncon- 
trolled action, and had brought upon themselves the burden of 
a helpless free colored population. This result presented a bar- 
rier to the progress of abolition, as the South were well-informed 
as to the disastrous results of emancipation in the North ; and 
farther manumissions by State action, even where the measure 
had once been favorably entertained, could not now be effected. 
This made it necessary to the success of abolition, that the united 
action of two-thirds of the States should be secured, in the mode 
prescribed by the Constitution, for such an alteration of that 
instrument as would secure general emancipation, without the 
assent of the minority of the States. But the South denied that 
such powers had been conferred by the Constitution as would 
allow of any change in its provisions on the subject of slavery; 
and held, that each State was sovereign and independent, in rela- 
tion to all measures not provided for, in express terms, in the 
Constitution. The Nullification movement was designed, in part 
at least, to serve as an emphatic remonstrance, by the South, 
against any interference with her domestic institutions by the 
North. 

The general character of the political action against slavery, 
in its varying aspects, will be best understood by presenting the 
opinions expressed by representative men, and the principles 
avowed in the party platforms. It is impracticable here to give 



430 PULPIT POLITICS, 

the history of these movements in detail ; but enough can he 
presented to aflford a true idea of the objects that were expected 
to be accomplished. 

It must be remembered, as necessary to the comprehension of 
certain movements of the Churches in 1861, that many of the 
ministers who had produced the agitation of this subject in the 
ecclesiastical courts, continued to participate in the struggle 
when it had been taken up by the politicians. 

It must also be noted, that after the first whirl of excitement 
had passed away, and the disturbed elements had subsided a 
little, tAvo classes of political abolitionists were found arrayed 
against Southern slavery. The principles held by each are thus 
described by Dr. Bailey : 

" The Liberty party take the ground that, under the Constitution 
of the United States, and the Constitutions of the several States, 
powers, fully adequate to the complete extinction of slavery in this 
country, are lodged in the hands of the citizens, and that, in sup- 
porting the Constitution of the United States, and using the powers 
it confers, no one is necessarily involved in moral wrong. 

" What is called the Garrison party among abolitionists, assumes 
that the Federal Constitution is ' a covenant with death and an agree- 
ment with hell ;' that no man can make oath or affirmation to support 
it, without committing an immoral act; and that, consequently, to 
seek disunion becomes the duty of the citizen."* 

The Abolition party " first made its appearance in national politics 
in the Presidential contest of 1840, when its ticket, with James G. 
Birney, of Michigan, as its candidate for the Presidency, and Francis 
J. Lemoyne, of Pennsylvania, as its candidate for Vice-President, 
polled 7,000 votes. In 1844, with Mr. Birney again as its candidate, 
it polled 62,140 votes. In 1848, with Martin Van Buren as the Pres- 
idential candidate of the Buffalo Convention, and Gerrit Smith as that 
of the more ultra anti-slavery men, it polled 296,232 votes. In 1852. 
John P. Hale, its nominee, polled 157,296 votes. In 1856, the can- 
didate of the Republican party, John C. Fr6raont, supported by the 
entire abolition party, polled 1,341,812 votes."f 

* Cincinnati Morning Herald, July 12, 1845. Editorial, 
t Political Text- Book, by M. W. Cluskey, Postmaster of the House of Eep 
resentatives of the United States Congress. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 431 

On tlie 29tli December, 1841, a State Convention met in Colum- 
bus, Ohio. This meeting was called by S. P. Chase, S. Lewis, T. 
Morris, J. Jolliffe, and W. Keys. Its object was to organize a 
separate political action, so as " to make the cause of Liberty tri- 
umphant at the ballot-box."* An address, prepared by Mr. Chase, 
was issued, and a series of resolutions adopted. The first reso- 
lution charges that the General Government, for fifty-three years, 
had pursued a course of policy exhibiting great partiality to the 
slave States ; the second, that the negotiations with foreign gov- 
ernments had been so conducted as to secure an admission of 
Southern products into foreign markets upon favorable terms, 
while the productions of the North, in the same markets, were 
subject to the payment of high duties ; (1) the third, fourth, fifth, 
sixth, seventh, and eighth were as follows : 

" 3. That experience has clearly shown that the institution of slav- 
ery, which establishes within a State a larger amount of non-laboring 
population than the laborers can possibly support in the habits of 
extravagance which it generates, always impoverishes the State in 
which it exists, and thus creates a demand for the agricultural, me- 
chanical, and manufactured products, and for the money and mer- 
chandise of the free States, far beyond the means of repayment, and 
is a drain upon the resources so inordinate as to operate as a serious 
check upon their prosperity. 

" 4. That our fathers ordained the Constitution of tlic United States 
to establish justice, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless- 
ings of liberty ; but the powers which it confers have been used to 
promote injustice, endanger the general welfare, and to perpetuate the 
evils of slavery. It is the duty of the people to see that the Consti- 
tution fulfills the ends for which it was established. 

" 5. That the exclusion of slavery from the Northwestern Territory 
by Congress, in 1787, and the history of that period, clearly show 
that it was the settled purpose of the Government, not to extend or 
nationalize, but to limit and localize slavery, and to this policy, which 
should never have been departed from, the Government ought imme- 
diately to return. 

" 6. That the patronage and support hitherto extended to slavery 
by the General Government, ought to be withdrawn, and wherever the 

* Life of Samuel Lewi?, page 308. 



■132 PULPIT POLITICS. 

General Government possess constitutional jurisdiction, slavery ouglit 
to cease. 

" 7. That we expressly disclaim, in betalf of the General Govern- 
ment, all right to interfere with slavery in the States where it exists ; 
but we shall ever insist that the General Government may and ought 
to interfere with slavery in the District of Columbia, in Florida, and 
on the seas. 

"8. That the freedom of speech and of the press, and the right of 
petition, and the right of trial by jury, are sacred and inviolable ; and 
that all rules, regulations, and laws, in derogation of either, are op- 
pressive, unconstitutional, and not to be endured by a free people."* 

The Address issued by this Convention embraced the views 
of the Liberty party. A few extracts will show its tone : 

"Against hope, we have persevered, in hope that deliverance to the 
people of this country from the manifold evils which they suflPer in 
consequence of the ascendancy of slaveholding influence in all the 
departments of our General Government, would arise from the action 
of one or the other of the political parties which now claim to divide 
the country. All such expectation, however, after having been re- 
peatedly disappointed and repeatedly resumed, is now finally relin- 
quished. . . . The Constitution found slavery, and left it, a State 
institution — the creature and dependent of State law — local wholly 
in its existence and character. It did not make it a national institu- 
tion. It gave it no national character — no national existence. 
We admit — we assert it is strictly a State institution, and that Con- 
gress has no control over it in the States. . . . 

" No candid man, acquainted with the history of his country, will 
deny that, at the formation of the Constitution, a general expectation 
prevailed that slavery would soon cease in all the States in which it 
actually existed. (2) . . . But very diS"erent are the facts of his- 
tory. Encroachment has succeeded encroachment, and usurpation 
has followed usurpation, and the influence of slavery runs through 
the whole action of the Government, and is felt in the remotest corner 
of the land. . . . 

"Fifty-three years have elapsed since the adoption of the Consti- 
tution of the United States. . . . Daring the same period seven 
slave States have been added to the Union, and slavery has been 

* Cincinnati Gazette, January, 1843. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 433 

maintained by the authority of the General Government in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and in the Territories of Louisiana and Florida. 
We will say nothing of the admission of Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Alabama into the Union as slave States. The fact that these were 
taken from the original slave States may be admitted as an apology, 
though not as a sufficient warrant for it. But the continuance of 
slavery in the District, and in the Territories purchased from France 
and Spain, and the admission of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and 
Missouri into the Union as slave States, were in violation of the im- 
plied pledge contained in the Ordinance of 1787 — in manifest disre- 
gard of the principles of the Constitution — and utterly at variance 
with the original policy of the country in respect to slavery. Thus 
has the slave power prevailed in the admission of new slave States, 
and in the extension of slavery beyond its original limits. 

" For a considerable period after the organization of the Federal 
Government, wheat and flour, the products of free States, constituted 
our chief articles of export and our principal means of paying for 
supplies from foreign nations. After some years, however, cotton, 
the product of slave labor, became the great article of ^port, and 
has since continued to be so. Every, energy of our government has 
been put in requisition to secure this result. . . . Similar exports 
have been made in behalf of tobacco and rice, also, for the most part, 
products of slave States. In the mean time wheat, flour, and pork, 
and the other products of free labor, have been gradually excluded 
from foreign markets, and our government has eared nothing and 
thought nothing about the matter. At length the surplus of these 
products has become immense, and the free laborer anxiously looks 
for a market, but finds almost all the ports of the world nearly or 
absolutely closed against him. Thus has the slave power protected 
the interests of slave labor, and sacrificed the interests of free labor, 
through its influence on our foreign negotiations. . . . 

"We ask you, fellow citizens, to acquaint yourselves fully with the 
details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly 
touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believ- 
ing that THE HONOR, THE WELFARE, THE SAFETY, of OUr COUntry 

imperiously require the absolute and unqualijied divorce of the Gov- 
ernment from slavery .'* . . . 

"This is the great object of our efi^o^s. We believe that our 
national Constitution afi"ords no sanction to the doctrine that man 

» The italics and small capitals are in the original. 

28 



434 PULPIT POLITICS, 

can hold property in man. We believe that its only safe refuge, 
from universal disavowal and repudiation, is in the constitution of 
the separate States whieh admit and sanction it. We believe that 
neither the domestic nor foreign policy of the Government will be 
permanently settled so as to secure steady and adequate rewards to 
free labor, until slavery shall be confined within the limits of those 
States, and the General Government be delivered from the control of 
the slave power. 

"We would, therefore, withdraw the support of national legislation 
and negotiation from the system of slavery. 

"TVe would enforce the just and constitutional rule that slavery is 
the creature of local law, and cannot be extended beyond the limits 
of the State in which it exists. (3) . . . 

"We would secure to every man a speedy and impartial trial by 
jury, in all cases where life and liberty shall be in question."^ 

The Abolition Convention, in New York, held shortly after 
this period, is thus noticed by the Cincinnati Gazette, February 



" The Abolitionists of New York seem to be governed by the fiercest 
bigotry. The proceeding of this Convention, as reported in the Tri- 
hvne, are ultra in spirit, and rash to madness. They have addressed 
the slaves at the South, recommending them to run away, and so far 
as may be essential to their escape, to steal horse, or boat, or food, or 
clothing, urging their friends at the South to furnish them with pocket 
compasses and locofoco matches for this purpose. . . 

" The Convention closed by adopting the following resolution by 
acclamation : 

"Resolved, That we solemnly and deliberately proclaim to the 
nation, that no power on earth shall compel us to take up arms 
against the slaves, should they use violence in asserting their right, 
to freedom," 

In the course of the proceedings of the abolitionists in their 
arrangements for prosecuting the presidential campaign of 1844, 
the Hartford Committee addressed Mr, Birney, asking his opinions 
on the various questions of the day. In his reply, Mr. Birney, 
under date of August 15, 1843, said : 

* Cincinnati Gazette, January 13 and 14, 1842, 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 435 

" 4. I am not in favor of creating a National Bank wMle slavery is 
continued in our country. Slave labor, on a large scale, can never 
support itself; or I should rather say, it can never support the indo- 
lence and the prodigality which it never fails to beget in those who 
lay claim to its fruits. 

" 5. My mind strongly inclines to the opinion that, if Congress can 
rightfully abolish slavery in time of war, it may abolish it in time of 
peace. A vicious and dangerous state of things existing in the com- 
munity generally, may as certainly, if not as suddenli/, become as de- 
structive of the government as war. The principle, then, on which 
Congress might rightfully proceed to abolish slavery as a measure of 
relief and safety in war, might be equally applicable and imperative, 
on the same grounds, in time of peace. In both cases, the instant at 
which emancipation would be ordered to take place would depend on 
the sound judgment of the government. (4) 

" As a people, we have undertaken, before God and the nations of the 
earth, to maintain in our political organization the principles of liberty 
asserted in the Declaration of Independence, and substantially incor- 
porated into the Constitution. Thus have we voluntarily brought 
ourselves under a guarantee to purge our country from whatever is in- 
consistent with these principles. Nothing is more palpably so than 
slavery. We are under a pledge, then, to the world, and to one an- 
other, to abolish it; and, in so far as our government has permitted 
slavery to remain at ease — much more to enlarge and magnify itself — 
it has proved recreant to its solemn undertaking — has brought on us, 
as a people, the charge of hypocrisy, and dishonored us before the 
heavens and the earth. 

" Persons of great experience and intelligence, as jurists, have sat- 
isfied themselves that the Constitution authorizes, in express terms, 
the fulfillment of this guarantee, by the Grovernment. Congress, say 
they, has nothing to do with the relation of master and slave. Neither 
the relation itself, nor the parties between whom it exists, are any- 
where mentioned in the Constitution, while, at the same time, (Amend- 
ment IV,) it declares that no ' person ' shall be deprived of liberty 
without due process of law : — and this without the slightest reference 
to his being a native or foreigner — a citizen or an alien — black or 
white. Those who are called 'slaves' at the South, are called 'p^'/-- 
sons' in the Constitution. Are these persons deprived of their liberty ? 
Yes. By due process of law? No. Then why, it may be asked, are 



436 PULPIT POLITICS. 

they not entitled to the benefits of the Constitutional provision within 
the words and spirit of which they are so expressly brought ? 

" But should the Liberty party be brought into power, a proceeding 
wholly unobjectionable as to its constitutionality — as simple as it is 
constitutional, and one that would prove as effectual as it is simple, 
would, doubtless, be adopted for the abolition of slavery. It is td' 
confine the appointments to office under the Government to such as 
are not slaveholders. The justness and propriety of such a course 
would be as unobjectionable as its other characteristics ; for, surely, 
nothing could be more reasqnable than to exclude from all share in 
the administration of the Government— from its offices and its hon- 
ors — those whose whole lives are passed in open contempt of its fun- 
damental principles ! (5) 

" 6. It is my opinion that Congress can stop the domestic slave- 
trade between the States, vinder that provision of the Constitution 
which gives it the power to regulate commerce among them. If it 
be said that Congress has no power to obstruct the transit or removal 
of persons from one of the States into another — it may be replied, 
that, if commerce lay her hands on ' persons,' and transmute them 
into things to deal in, she brings herself, by that act, and in relation 
to that matter, completely within the scope of the Constitutional pro- 
vision."* (6) 

Again, under date of September 2, 1844, in reply to the Hart- 
ford Committee, and of August 5, 1844, in reply to Mr. Errett, 
of Pittsburgh, Mr. Birney said : 

" The sentiments I have expressed above [on the National Bank, 
the Tariff, etc.], would not, I know, meet with acceptance in many 
parts of the country. Many, even of the most faithful of the Liberty 
party, would probably dissent from them. I have not been forward 
to publish them, lest, by doing so, I might, in some degree, contribute 
to divert our friends from our paramount object, the overthrow of the 
slave power ; — and because I felt well-assured, as I still do, that, if 
the Liberty party come into power, the whole country will soon be 
brought into the most favorable circumstances for harmonizing all its 
apparently discordant interests, and for settling, on their proper bases, 
all the important existing questions of national policy. Now, the 
labor of the country is made up of two hostile parts — slave and free. 

* Cincinnati Weekly Herald, Sept. 24, 1844. 



1 

MOVEIVIENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 437 

Irreconcilable ia their nature, they can never be brought to operate 
harmoniously together under one system of legislation. Let no one, 
then, look for jarrings and dissensions to pass away from among us, 
till slave labor have passed away, or be seen to be passing away, with 
a certainty of its speedy and entire disappearance. 

" The accession to power of the Liberty party implies, as I take 
it, the speedy extinction of slavery everywhei-e within our country ; 
and, of course, the bringing of all its labor into a homogeneous state. 
Till our labor be brought into this state, all legislation for its benefit 
must necessarily be, in a great measure, unavailing ; and this can be 
done only by the extinction of slavery.* 

"But you are ready to ask, how could the Liberty party, if in 
power, extinguish slavery, seeing, as is admitted on all hands, that 
the Greneral Government — except as a war measure, to save itself — 
has no Constitutional power over that institution in the States? I 
reply — all that is necessary to be done is for the appointing power of 
the General Government to bring into its offices and stations of honor, 
and trust, and profit, throughout the South, only such as are not rlave- 
holders — only such as practically acknowledge that all men are cre- 
ated equal, and entitled to their lives and liberty. No objection can 
be made to the constitutionality of such a course. It is as simple, 
too, as it is constitutional, and it will be found as effective as it is 
simple. Its spirit and object would commend it to all, except the 
slaveholders themselves ; for I have always found it true, that how- 
ever slow a people may themselves be to put away wrong from among 
them, yet when once justice is boldly done on it by their rulers, the 
act never fails of receiving their heartiest sanction and approbation. 

" The slaveholders would first huddle together for their mutual 
defense. But it would be unavailing. They could no more with- 
stand the influence of public opinion, now purified by an illustrious 
act of justice, and flaming on them from every side, than the snow- 
drift of an April night can withstand the meridian rays of the next 
day's Bun."f 

From Mr. Birney we turn to Mr. Chase. 

The Cincinnati 3Iorning Herald, May 21, 1845, contains the 
great speech of Hon. Salmon P. Chase, on the occasion of his re- 

* Here is the first dawn of the " irrepressible conflict." 
t Cincinnati Morning Herald, Sept. 23, 1844. 



438 PULPIT POLITICS. 

ception of a silver pitclier from the colored people of Cincinnati. 
A few extracts will show his positions on the negro question. 
He said : 

'■• I embrace, with pleasure, this opportunity of declaring my disap- 
probation of that clause in the constitution which denies to a portion 
of the colored people the right of suffrage.^ ... I regard, therefore, 
the exclusion of the colored people, as a body, from the elective fran 
chise as incompatible with free democratic principles. . . . The ex- 
clusion of colored children from the schools is, in my judgment, a 
clear infringement of the Constitution, and a palpable breach of trust. 
I arraign the whole policy of our legislation in relation to our colored 
population. I deny its justice ; I deny its expediency. (7) 

" Let me turn now, for a moment, to the condition of the enslaved- 
They number two millions and a half. I claim for these the rights 
which the Constitution and the law, rightly interpreted, secure to 
them. I claim that nowhere, unless within the limits of the original 
States, can a single person be enslaved, except in violation of the Con- 
stitution and the laws. (8) I maintain that the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and the Constitution of the United States are the expressions 
of the anti-slavery sentiment of an anti-slavery people. In the 
former, these expressions assumed the form of a solemn proclamation 
of the National Creed, on the subject of human rights. In the latter, 
these expressions took the shape of permanent declarations of the 
National Will embodied as the fundamental law of the land. The 
Declaration assumed the natural equality of all men as the foundation 
principle of all just government. The Constitution, acting on things 
as it found them, established the National Government, with such 
powers and such limitations of power, as would, it was then thought, 
secure the final conformity of the actual condition of the people to 
the theory of the Declaration. 

" In the case of Watson, of which, sir, you have so feelingly spoken, 
the constitutional limitations of slavery were fully discus.sed. In that 
ease it was my part to re-state the positions and reiterate the reason- 
ings of the able lawyers associated with me. I may be permitted, 
therefore, to say that, in my judgment, the positions were sound and 
the arguments unanswerable. The first of these positions, and that 
on which the whole argument hinged, was that the Constitution was 
not designed to uphold slavery, and conferred no power on Congres.s 

* The Constitution of Ohio is here referred to. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 439 

to establisli, coutinue, or sanction slaveliolding anywliere. We also 
maintained that slaveholding could not be continued anywliere with- 
out the sanction and aid of positive law. . . . Slavery is an institu- 
tion of force. If I claim to own you, sir, and require you to do some 
service for me, and you refuse, and the law puts forth the power of 
the community, in aid of mine, to compel you to submit to my dis- 
posal, and you are compelled to submit, then you are a slave. Con- 
gress is not authorized to exert any such power in behalf of the mas- 
ter. Congress is expressly prohibited from exerting any such power 
by the fifth amendment of the Constitution, which declares that no 
person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due 
process of law. How, then, could slavery coutinue in the territory of 
Louisiana, after its acquisition by the United States? There was — 
there could be no law in the Territory inconsistent with the Consti- 
tution, which forbade that any person should be deprived of liberty 
without due process of law. There was — there could be no law in the 
Territory which did not exist either through the adoption or by the 
enactment of Congress, or of the Territorial Legislature, which derived 
all its power from Congress. Congress could not adopt law which it 
could not enact, nor confer a power on the Territorial Legislature 
which it did not itself possess, Congress has no power to legalize the 
practice of slaveholding. The practice of slaveholding, therefore, in 
the Territory could not be legalized. Nor could it be legalized in 
any state created out of the Territory, unless it can be maintained 
that a part of the people of any one of the States in this Union can 
convert another part into property, if they can get possession of the 
Legislature and have physical force enough to enforce its detestable 
enactments. 

"I have no doubt of the correctness of these positions, or of the 
soundness of the inevitable inference from them, that slaveholding in 
Arkansas is unconstitutional, and, consequently, that Watson, having 
been conveyed to Arkansas, by his Virginia master, was free. But I 
was aware that this doctrine was too little in accordance with the re- 
ceived pro-slavery theories of constitutional construction, to find much 
favor iipon a first hearing, and was not disappointed that the judge did 
not acquiesce in it. I expect, however, to live to see it recognized in 
all courts as sound law. . . . 

" For myself, I am ready to renew my pledge, and I will venture to 
speak also in behalf of my co-workers — that we will go straight on, 
without faltering or wavering, until every vestige of oppression shall 



440 PULPIT POLITICS. 

be erased from the statute-book ; until the sun in all his journey fronj 
the utmost eastern horizon, through the mid-heaven, till he sinks be- 
yond the western mountains into his ocean bed, shall not behold, in 
all our broad and glorious land, the footprint of a single slave." (9) 

The proceedings of the " Southern and Western Liberty Con- 
vention," which met in Cincinnati, June 11, 1845, were published 
in the Cincinnati Morning Herald. A few extracts from the pro- 
ceedings will serve to show the aims it had in view. 

James Gr. Birney, Esq., on the first day of the session, said : "We 
are not met to abolish the Union. I have no idolatrous veneration 
for the Union. If slavery could not be abolished without the disso- 
lution of the Union, I, for one, would go for dissolution. (10) But it 
is not necessary. We should feel some charity for those who think 
that dissolution is the only way of eradicating the evil. They do not 
oppose the Union as it ought to have been ; but as it is, with the 
usurpation of the slave power. "^ 

John M. Wills, of Pittsburgh, during the evening session, said : 
" Our object must be to build up a power in the North, which shall 
be as much dreaded as the slave power of the South. And we can 
do it. In several States we have already the balance of political 
power in the free States. We can soon obtain the balance of power 
in all the free States, and when we have done that, one of the political 
parties must inscribe one fundamental doctrine of the Liberty party, 
to wit : the entire divorce of the General Government from all con- 
nection with slavery. The moment this is done, the necessity of a 
Liberty party ceases. All we wish is the accomplishment of our 
object, and the party which shall give us this, destroys the necessity 
of our longer existence. And it is thus equally the interest of both 
Whig and Democratic parties to raise the standard of emancipa- 
tion."t (11) 

Judge Stevens, of Indiana, during the same session, said : " We 
are now a separate moral and political organization. We shall ever 
continue so. The other parties may come to us, but we can not go 
to them. They are destined to become one simple chemical sub- 
stance, fused into one by the Liberty principle. . . . We are 
asked how slavery is to be abolished? Sir, I will tell you. We must 
reach the abolition of slavery over the dead bodies of both the old 

* Morning Herald, June 12, 1845. t Ibid., June 13, 1845. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 441 

political parties. ... In the second place, we must reach the 

abolition of slavery through the doors of 20,000 churches 

But we are told that our plan is seditious and factious .... that 
we shall divide the churches ! Sir, division implies separation, and 
what shall we separate ? Why the sin of slaveholding from Christian- 
ity. . . . We are told, too, that we shall divide the Union — that 
we are disunionists. Now, sir, I am for the Union — but I say, if the 
only Union we can have with the South, in Church and State, is to 
be, and must be, cemented by the blood of three millions of my 
brethren, I say, in God's name, let it go down." (12) . . . "Judge 
Steven's Address produced a profound impression, and was received 
with applause."* 

The following resolutions, among others, were adopted by the 
Convention : 

"3. Resolved, That we love the Union, and desire its perpetuity, 
and revere the Constitution, aiid are determined to maintain it; but 
the Union which we love must be a Union to establish justice, and 
secure the blessings of liberty; and the Constitution which we sup- 
port, must be that which our fathers bequeathed to us, and not that 
which the constructions of slavery and servilism have substituted for it. 

"4. Resolved, That, as a national party, our purpose and determin- 
ation is to divorce the National Government from slavery ; to prohibit 
slaveholding in all places of exclusive national jurisdiction; to abol- 
ish the domestic slave trade ; to harmonize the administration of the 
Government in all its departments with the principles of the Dec- 
laration ; (13) and, in all proper and constitutional modes to encour- 
age, and discontinue the system of work without wages ; but not to 
interfere, unconstitutionally, with the local legislation of particular 
States. "f 

In the Address of the Convention to the people of the United States, 
we find the following : " We are willing to take our stand upon propo- 
sitions generally conceded : — that slaveholding is contrary to natural 
right and justice ; (14) that it can subsist nowhere without the sanc- 
tion and aid of positive legislation ; that the Constitution expressly 
prohibits Congress from depriving any person of liberty without due 
process of law. From these propositions we deduce, by logical infer- 
ence, the doctrines upon which we insist. . . . The question of 

* Morning Herald, June 13, 1845. t Ibid., Juno IC, 1845. 



442 PULPIT POLITICS. 

slavery is, and until it sliall be settled, must be, tbe paramount moral 
and political question of tbe day. We, at least, so regard it ; and so 
regarding it, must subordinate every other question to it."* 

We defer additional quotations from other sources, in the pres- 
ent section, but, if space permits, may do so in a subsequent one. 

REMAEKS ON THE PRECEDING PRODUCTIONS. 

(1) The complaint made by the Columbus Abolition Convention, 
in both its resolutions and address, that Northern products were 
excluded from foreign markets while Southern products were ad- 
mitted on advantageous terms, was not founded in an intelligent 
view of that question. Foreign nations, generally, were able then, 
as now, to grow their own breadstuffs and provisions, but could 
not produce their cotton. Hence, while they retained a tariff of 
duties on such commodities as the North produced, they were in- 
terested in admitting the products of the South on the most favor 
able terms. The argument was offered, doubtless, for political 
effect merely, and to enlist the prejudices of Northern and West- 
ern agriculturists against the South. 

(2) Here we have the first authoritative announcement of the 
theory, that, " at the formation of the Constitution, a general ex- 
pectation prevailed that slavery would soon cease in all the States 
in. which it actually existed." This view is proven to be false, not 
only by the letter of Mr. Jefferson to M. Muissner, but by the 
action of the Methodist Church in dropping its Rule on Slavery 
in the Southern States. This theory has been the most danger- 
ous one entertained by the abolitionists. They did not claim that 
the Constitution itself repudiated slavery, but that it was the 
general expectation, at the time of the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion, that slavery would soon die out. This expectation was 
limited to the North, and never had an existence at the South. 
Southern statesmen never understood the Constitution as contem- 
plating a course of legislation, under its provisions,. that would 
secure the abolition of slavery. They adopted it with the dis- 
tinct understanding, that " the powers not delegated to the 

» Morning Herald, June 20, 1845. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 443 

United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." 
Slavery was an existing institution, over which Congress had no 
constitutional power granted to it ; that institution, therefore, was 
left wholly under the control of the States and of the people. To 
urge emancipation on the ground of a sectional opinion, and in 
opposition to the plain provisions of the Constitution, was a pal- 
pable violation of the principles of that instrument, and, neces- 
sarily, provoked resistance on the part of those to be affected by 
the new doctrine. 

(3) " Slavery is the creature of local law." This has been an 
axiom with abolitionists ever since the decision of Lord Mansfield 
in the case of Somersett ; but its accuracy has not been acquiesced 
in by later English judges. The discussion of this point came up 
in the Congress of the United States, January 30, 1861, when 
Hon. John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, in reply to Hon. Mr. 
Stanton, of Ohio, said : 

" It pained me to hear the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Stanton,) 
for whom I entertain the highest respect, both as a lawyer and a man, 
assert that slavery was never sanctioned by the common law, or law 
of nations, but was the creature of local law. Sir, I diifer with him, 
toto ccelo. Where can he show me a statute, in any State, establishing 
slavery? Our ancestors brought the common law with them, and it is 
an admitted historical fact, that African slavery existed in the thirteen 
original States. Now, if the common law does not sanction slavery, 
and no statute can be found establishing it, how was it recognized, and 
how did it originally find a footing in the free States? Whence the 
necessity of statutes for its abolition ? Why did not the pernicious 
thing perish in the pure atmosphere of Puritanism of New England, 
denounced by the common law, and unsupported by any statute ? Yet 
it continued for years ; and, strange to say, opposition to the abolition 
of the slave trade, insisted on by Southern men, came from the ances- 
tors of Republicans who wish us now to become their pupils in the 
school of morals. Nay, more, Mr. Speaker : I doubt not, even at this 
day, in New England, that a note given in New Orleans for the price 
of a slave, and transferred to some Boston merchant, could be re- 
covered before a Republican jury, with a plea impeaching its consider- 
ation as vicious. If so, then slavery is not contrary to the law of 



444 PULPIT POLITICS. 

nature, or of morals, since, ' ex titrpi caxisa, non oritur actio,' and 1 
•would cite Kepublican action against Republican theory. 

" Mr. Speaker, I deny that slavery is the creature of municipal law. 
It is one of the erroneous corollaries which has been deduced from a 
loose noxious ohiter dictum of Lord Mansfield in Somersett's case ; and 
which, I regret to say, but frankly admit, has crept into the opinions 
of many able judges in our American courts. I may be pardoned for 
saying it is, nevertheless, a legal heresy. I cannot, however, forbear 
making England herself, well known to be no apologist for slavery, 
a witness against the position of the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. 
Stanton,) on this point. He is, I know, familiar with the case of 
the slave Grace, decided by Lord Stowell, and reported in 2 Hazzard^s 
Reports^ page 94. The facts of that case were, that Mrs. Allen, of 
Antigua, came to England, in 1822, bringing her female slave Grace. 
She remained with her mistress until 1823, when she returned with 
her voluntarily to Antigua. She continued as a domestic slave with 
Mrs. Allen until 1825, when she was seized by the waiter of the cus- 
toms at Antigua, as forfeited to the king, on having been illegally im- 
ported in 1823. The vice-admiralty court of Antigua decreed the 
slave to her owner, Mrs. Allen, from which an appeal was prayed. 

" Lord Stowell affirmed the judgment, in a learned, lengthy, and 
able opinion. I commend it to the gentlemen from Ohio. In it, he 
reviews Lord Mansfield's opinion in the Somersett case, with a spice 
of ironical satire. Lord Stowell says : 

" ' The real and sole question which the case of Somersett brought 
before Lord Mansfield, was, whether a slave could be taken from this 
country in irons and carried back to the West Indies to be restored to 
the dominion of his master? And all the answer, perhaps, which that 
question required was, that the party, who was a slave, could not be 
sent out of England in such a manner and for such a purpose, stating 
the reasons of that illegality. It is certainly true that Lord Mansfield, 
in his final judgment, amplifies the subject largely. He extends his 
observations to the foundation of the whole system of the slavery code ; 
for, in one passage, he says ' that slavery is so odious that it cannot be 
established without positive law.' 

" ' Far be the presumption of questioning any ohiter dictum that fell 
from that great man on that occasion ; but I trust I do not depart from 
the modesty that belongs to my situation, and, I hope, to my character, 
when I observe that ancient custom is generally recognized as a just 
foundation for all law ; that villenage of both kinds, which is said by 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 445 

some to be the prototype of slavery, had no other origin than ancient 
custom : that a great part of the common law itself, in all its relations, 
has little other foundation than the same custom ; and that the practice 
of slavery, as it exists in Antigua and several other of our colonies, 
though regulated by law, has been, in many instances, founded upon 
a similar authority.' 

" Lord Stowell adds, in regard to the suggestion in the Somersett 
case, that the air of the island was too pure for slavery — 

" ' How far this air was used for the common purposes of respiration 
during the many centuries in which the two systems of villenago main- 
tained their sway in this country, history has not recorded.' 

" Again, he says, as to the revival of slavery in the colonies : 

" ' I have first to observe that it (slavery) returns upon the slave by 
same title by which it grew up originally. It never was, in Antigua, the 
creature of law, but of that custom which operates with the force of 
law ; and when it is cried out, that mains usiis abolendiis est, it is first 
to be proved that, even in the consideration of England, the use of 
slavery is considered as a malus usus in the colonies.' 

" Here is a direct authority as to the usage and common law of 
England in tolerating slavery, and from a most eminent English jurist. 
This opinion, if I am not mistaken, was commended by the late Justice 
Story. 

" Allow me to read another short opinion by the same distinguished 
judge, in the case of Demarara and its dependencies. (6 Admiralty 
Reports.') The question arose as to the character of slaves in the 
arsenals and forts of Demarara, on the 31st September, 1803, when it 
surrendered to Great Britain : 

" ' The slaves are in number thi'ce hundred and ninety -nine, of whom 
two hundred are no longer the subject of contest, but are now admitted^ 
to have belonged to the estate on which they were employed as glebai 
adscriptitii ; they were attached to the soil as part and parcel of +he 
realty, and, upon that account, the question with respect to them has 
very properly been given up by the captors. 
;(< >1< ***>!: ^- 

" ' The first question is, whether slaves are at all given to the cap- 
tors by the prize act, that is, whether they pass by words "stores of 
war, goods, merchandise, or treasure," which, by the third section of 
the statute, are to be deemed prize, and to be apportioned by his maj- 
esty between the army and navy, when acting in conjunction. Now, 
the fact is, that slaves have generally been considered as personal 



446 PULPIT POLITICS. 

property. Tlie word mancijna, as it has been well observed, signifiesj 
qiice maun capiiinter. This is unquestionably the meaning of the 
word according to the civil law. In our West India colonies, where 
slavery is continued, and is likely to continue longer than in any of 
the countries of Europe, slaves have been for some purposes consid- 
ered as real property ; but I apprehend that, where the contrary is 
not shown, the general character and description of them is, that they 
are personal property, and I see no reason, in the present case, for 
saying that they are not within the general rule, and, consequently, 
that they are not to be considered "as goods or merchandise." They 
are liable to be transferred by purchase and sale, and although the 
owner may choose to employ them on his own works, instead of trans- 
ferring them for a valuable consideration, they are not, I apprehend, 
the less "goods and merchandise" on that account. The very same 
observation applies to all other cases of personal property, for all 
such property, if saleable, is merchandise, although the person in 
possession may not be a merchant, or mean to dispose of it by sale.' 

" Once more : in the case of Le Louis (6 Admiralty Reports) Lord 
Stowell is still more emphatic on the subject of the recognition by 
the law of nations of the African slave trade, if recognized as lawful 
by the country whose bottoms are engaged in it. He says : 

" ' It (the Court) must look to the legal standard of morality ; and 
upon a question of this nature, that standard must be found in the 
law of nations, as fixed and evidenced by general, and ancient, and 
admitted practice, by treaties, and by the general tenor of the laws 
and ordinances, and the formal transactions of civilized States ; and 
looking to those authorities, I find a difficulty in maintaining that the 
traffic is legally criminal. 

" ' Let me not be misunderstood, or misapprehended, as a professed 
apologist for this practice, when I state facts which no man can deny, 
that personal slavery, arising out of forcible captivity, is coeval with 
the earliest periods of the history of mankind ; that it is found exist- 
ing — and, as far as appears, without animadversion — in the earliest 
and most authentic records of the human race ; that it is recognized 
by the codes of the most polished nations of antiquity ; that, under 
the light of Christianity itself, the possession of persons so acquired 
has been, in every civilized country, invested with the character of 
property, and secured as such by all the protections of law ; that 
solemn treaties have been framed, and national monopolies eagerly 
sought, to facilitate and extend the commerce in this asserted prop 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 4-47 

erty ; and all this, -with all tlie sanctions of law, public and municipal, 
and witliout any opposition, except the protests of a few private mor- 
alists, little heard and less attended to, in every country, till within 
these very few years, in this particular country. If the matter rested 
here, I fear it would have been deemed a most extravagant assumption 
in any court of the law of nations to pronounce that this practice, the 
tolerated, the approved, the encouraged object of law ever since man 
became subject to law, was prohibited by that law, and was legally 
criminal. But the matter does not rest here. Within these few years 
a considerable change of opinion has taken place, particularly in this 
country. Formal declarations have been made, and laws enacted, in 
reprobation of this practice ; and pains, ably and zealously conducted, 
have been taken to induce other countries to follow the example, but 
at present with insufficient eifect ; for there are nations which adhere 
to the practice under all the encouragement which their own laws can 
give it. What is the doctrine of our courts, of the law of nations, 
relative to them ? Why, that their practice is to be respected ; that 
their slaves, if taken, are to be restored to them ; and, if not taken 
under innocent mistake, are to be restored with costs and damages. 
All this, surely, upon the ground that such conduct, on the ]>art of 
any State, is no departure from the law of nations ; because, if it were, 
no such respect could be allowed to it upon an exemption of its own 
making, for no nation can privilege itself to commit a crime against 
the law of nations by a mere municipal regulation of its own. And 
if our understanding and administration of the law of nations be, that 
every nation, independently of treaties, retains a legal right to carry 
on this traffic, and that the trade, carried on under that authority, is 
to be respected by all tribunals, foreign as well as domestic, it is not 
easy to find any consistent grounds on which to maintain that the 
traffic, according to our views of that law, is criminal.' — Enylisli Ad- 
miralty Reports^ vol. 2. 

" Need I refer to the case of the Antelope, in which the distin- 
guished and lamented Chief Justice Marshall held that — 

" ' The African slave trade had been sanctioned, in modern times, 
by the laws of all nations who possess distant colonies, each of whom 
has engaged in it as a common commercial business which no other 
could rightfully interrupt. It has claimed all the sanction which 
could be derived from long usage and general acquiescence.' 

" The gentleman from Ohio (I\Ir. Stanton) will surely not contend 
that these decisions sustain his position, that African slavery is a 



448 PULPIT POLITICS. 

local institution, created exclusively by State laws, or that the com- 
mon law did not recognize property in a person. Sir, upon what 
ground could we have ever obtained indemnity, as we have often 
done, for the loss of our slaves on the high seas, if this doctrine were 
true? The official correspondence of our ministers abroad abounds 
in claims of this character, and many have been successful ; but if 
foreign nations had followed the doctrines of the Kepublican party, 
our claims, in every instance, would have been ignored."* 

(4) We have here the extraordinary claim set up by Mr, Bir- 
ney, the Liberty party candidate for President, that Congress, 
even in time of peace, may rightfully proceed to abolish slavery. 
Mr. Clay, about this time, in speaking of abolitionism as a polit- 
ical element in the nation, used the following prophetic language : 

"Mr. President: — It is at this alarming stage of the proceedings of 
the ultra-abolitionists, that I would seriously invite every considerate 
man in the country solemnly to pause, and deliberately to reflect, not 
merely on our existing posture, but upon that dreadful precipice down 
which they would hurry us. It is because these ultra-abolitionists 
have ceased to employ the instruments of reason and persuasion, have 
made their cause political, and have appealed to the ballot-box, that 
I am induced upon this occasion to address you."j 

Again, Mr. Clay, referring to the abolitionists, said : " To the 
agency of their powers of persuasion they now propose to substitute 
the power of the ballot-box ; and he must be blind to what is pass- 
ing before us, who does not perceive that the inevitable tendency of 
their proceedings is, if these should be found insufficient, to invoke, 
finally, the more potent powers of the bayonet. "J 

(5) Mr. Birney here proposes a very simple process indeed, 
and as silly as it is simple. His scheme for administering the 
Government, and eradicating slavery, is to disfranchise the slave- 
holders — a measure more easily proposed than executed. 

(6) The prohibition of the transit of slaves from one State to 
another, has long been a favorite measure with abolitionists. Its 

* Speech of Hon. John W. Stevenson, of Kentucky, on the State of the 
Union, delivered in the House of Kepresentatives, January 30, 1861. 

t Senate speech, 1839, as quoted in Cincinnati Mornirg Herald, Oct. 9, 1844. 
X Ibid. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITION) ISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 449 

practical bearing is readily understood. The natural increase of 
the slaves, if it were all kept within a State, would soon lead to 
over-population ; and thus their labor would become profitless, 
and emancipation become a necessity. 

(7) The claim set up here for negro suffrage, and the comming- 
ling of all colors in the same schools, is in accordance with the 
views of the abolitionists, but has never been acceptable to others. 

(8) This interpretation of the Constitution is such an extreme 
departure from that put upon it by the framers of that instru- 
ment, that it is no wonder the South took the alarm when the 
writer of this Address was elected, by the Legislature of Ohio, to 
the United States Senate. 

(9) And not only was this novel interpretation of the Consti- 
tution thrown broadcast over the land, but we have the declara- 
tion of the determination of these abolitionists to go straight 
on, without faltering or wavering, until there shall not be seen, 
" in all our broad and glorious land, the footprint of a single 
slave." 

(10) Here we have a candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Birney, 
declaring that, if slavery could not be abolished without the dis- 
solution of the Union, he, for one, would go for dissolution. This 
traitorous utterance was a fatal one. The sentiment became a 
part of the abolition creed, and was afterward repeated by a 
thousand tongues. 

(11) The policy announced by the Southern and Western Lib- 
erty Convention, by means of which the abolition of slavery was 
to be accomplished, was to persevere in its agitation of the sub- 
ject until the balance of political power should be secured, and 
one or the other of the political parties forced to inscribe upon 
its banner the fundamental doctrines of the abolitionists. In con- 
formity with this scheme, the abolitionists kept up their organi- 
zation, in one form or another, until they succeeded in " fusing" 
with the " Free Soil party," under Mr. Fremont, as the Presi- 
dential candidate. 

(12) It is painful to put upon record the traitorous utterances 
against the Union which abounded in the public demonstrations 
of the abolitionists at this period. The declaration of Judge 

29 



450 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Stevens, that if the only union we can have with the South, in 
Church and State, is to be, and must be, cemented by the slavery 
of three millions of his brethren, then, in God's name, let it go 
down, was received with applause instead of with execration, as 
it should have been. 

(13) The idea of making the legislative, judicial, and executive 
action of the nation conform to the Declaration of Independence, 
instead of to the Constitution, is as absurd as to make our inter- 
course with foreign nations conform to the non-importation, non- 
exportation and non-consumption compact of the colonists pre- 
vious to the Revolution.* The Declaration had its uses when 
announced, and has its uses still, as embodying the great leading 
doctrines of human rights — -fights that were denied to the colo- 
nists by the mother country. But the Declaration was never so 
interpreted, by those who adopted it, as to include any of the 
barl^arous races, in the sense of admitting them to civil equality ; 
otherwise, as we have elsewhere shown, that equality would have 
been recognized in the Constitution.! The grand error of the 
abolitionists has been in the adoption of this fiction in relation to 
the Declaration, and their persistence in urging that the Consti- 
tution must be interpreted in conformity with their negro equality 
interpretation of the Declaration. The non-intercourse compact 
had its uses also ; but it was temporary in its character. Its his- 
tory, however, teaches an important lesson, and one that has been 
overlooked by the abolitionists. It prohibited all importation of 
British goods, and all importation of slaves from Africa ; and, 
yet, notwithstanding the Declaration of Independence, no sooner 
had the Revolution triumphed than the importation of both British 
goods and slaves was resumed. This resumption of the slave 
trade was with the assent and co-operation of the northern 
States, and could never have occurred had the fathers of the Revo- 
lution interpreted the Declaration as including the negro race. 

(14) The Address of the Convention includes the fiction of Lord 
Mansfield, in the Somersett case, that slavery being contrary to 
natural law, can have no existence except by positive statute ; 

*See Chapter II, page 51. 

tSee discussion of this matter in Chapter II, page 52. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 451 

when the well-known fact is, that slavery, though recognized as a 
legal relation by almost every civilized nation, never has been 
established by positive law, any more than any of the other i-ela- 
tions among men which are recognized by the common law. 

To afford the reader a clearer conception of this question, we 
copy, in addition to the decisions presented by Mr. Stevenson, the 
argument of Charles O'Connor, Esq., in the Lemraon case. New 
York City, as condensed in the New York Jicjwrls, volume 20, 
1857: 

" (2) Negro slaver}^ never was a part oi' the municipal law of En- 
gland, and, consequently, it was not imported thence by the first colo- 
nists. Nor did they adopt any system of villenage or other permanent 
domestic slavery of any kind which had ever existed in England, or 
been known to, or regulated by, the laws or usages of that kingdom. 
They were a homogeneous race of the free white men ; and in a society 
of such persons, the slavery of its own members, endowed by nature 
with mental and physical equality, must ever be repugnant to an en- 
lightened sense of justice. Of course the colonists abhorred it— saw 
that it was not suited to their condition, and left it behind them when 
they emigrated. (^Doctor and Sttident Dialogue, 2 cA., 18, 19; Whea- 
ton V. Donaldson, 8 Pet., 059; Van Ness V. Pacard, 2 Pet., 444; 1 
Kent Com., 373 ; Const. N. Z, art 1, § 17 ; Neal V. Farmer, 9 CohVs 
Geo. R., 562, 578.) (3) As neither the political bondage nor the 
domestic slavery which the European by fraud and violence imposed 
upon his white brethren ever had a legal foothold in the territory now 
occupied by these States, the inflated speeches of French and British 
judges and orators touching the purity of the air and soil of their 
respective countries, whatever other purpose they may serve, are alto- 
gether irrelevant to the inquiry what was or is the law of any State 
in this Union on the subject of negro slavery. (^French Eloq., A. D. 
1738, 20 State Trials, 11 note; English Eloq., A. D. 1762, 2 Edeji, 117, 
Ld. Northington; Id., 1771, 20 State Trials, 1 Ld. Mansfield,; 
Scotch Eloq., 1778, id., note; Irish Eloq., 1793, Roioans Trial, Cur- 
ran; Judge McLeans criticism in Dred Scott, 19 How., 535; Lord 
Stowell's criticism, 2 Hagg. Ad., 109.) (a) The only argument 
against negro slavery found in the English cases at all suitable for a 
judicial forum, rests on the historical fact that it was unknown to 
English law. Mr. Hargrave, in Somei-sott's case, showed that white 
Englishmen were alone subject to the municipal slave laws of that 



452 PULPIT POLITICS. 

country at any time ; that negro slavery was a new institution, which 
it required the legislative power to introduce. (20 State Trials, 55; 
Com. V. Aves, 18 Pich., 214.) (6) Lord Holt and Mr. Justice 
Powell were Mr. Hargrave's high authority for the proposition that 
whilst the common law of England recognized white English slaves 
or villeins, and the right of property in them, yet it ' took no notice 
of a negro." That a white man might 'be a villein in England,' but 
• that as soon as a negro comes into England he became free.' It 
was only negro liberty that the know-nothingism of English and 
Erench law established. English and French air had not its true 
enfranchising purity till drawn through the nostrils of a negro. 
White slaves had long respired it without their status being at all 
affected. (^Smith V. Broicn, 2 Salk., 666 ; 20 State Trials, 55, note.) 
(c) Lord Mansfield said, in Somersett's case, ' The state of slavery 
is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any 
reason, moral or political, but only by positive law,' and negrophilism 
has been in raptures with him ever since. Nevertheless it was a bald, 
inconsequential truism. It might be equally well said of any other 
new thing not recognized in any known existing law. (Per Ashhurst, 
J'., 3 J. E., 63.) .... 2. The judicial department has no right 
to declare negro slavery to be contrary to the law of nature, or im- 
moral, or unjust, or to take any measures, or introduce any policy, for 
its suppression, founded on any such ideas. Courts are only authorized 
to administer the municipal law. Judges have no commission to pro- 
mulgate or enforce their notions of general justice, natural right or 
morality, but only that which is the known law of the land. (^Kent's 
Com., 448; Doctor and Student Dialogue, 1 ch., 18, 19; per Maule, 
J., 13 Ad. and Ell, N. S. 387, note.) 3. In the forensic sense of the 
word law, there is no such thing as a law of nature bearing upon the 
lawfulness of slavery, or, indeed, upon any other question in jurispru- 
dence. The law of nature is, in every juridical sense, a mere figure 
of speech. In a state of nature, if the existence of human beings in 
such a state may be supposed, there is no law. The prudential re- 
solves of an individual for his own government do not come under the 
denomination of law. Law, in the forensic sense, is wholly of social 
origin. It is a restraint imposed by society upon itself and its mem- 
bers. {RutherfortKs Inst., B. 1, ch. 1, §6, 7 ; 1 Bl. Com., 43 ; 1 Kent, 2 ; 

Wheatons Elements of Int. Law, 2, 19 ; Cooper's Justinian, notes, 405 ; 
Bower on Public Law, 47, and onward.) (1) If there was any such 

thing as a law of nature, in the forensic sense of the word law, it must 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — KY POLITICIANS. 453 

be of absolute and paramount obligation in all climes, ages, courts, and 
places. Inborn witli the moral constitution of man, it must control 
him everywhere, and overrule, as vicious, corrupt, and void, every op- 
posing decree or resolution of courts or legislatures. And, accord- 
ingly, Blackstone, repeating the idle speech of others upon the sub- 
ject, tells us that the law of nature is binding all over the globe ; and 
that no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to it. (1 Wendell's 
Blackstone, 40, 41, 42, and notes.) Yet, as the judiciary of England 
have, at all times, acknowledged negro slavery to be a valid basis of 
legal rights, it follows either that such slavery, in the practical judg- 
ment of the common law, is not contrary to the law of nature, or, if it 
be, that such law of nature is of no force in any English court. (Arc. 
Bouoier's Inst., § 9; Brougham, Ed. Rev., Apl. 1858, 235.) (2) The 
c'ommou law judges of England, while they broke the fetters of any 
negro slave who came into that country, held themselves bound to 
enforce contracts for the purchase and sale of such slaves, and to give 
redress for damages done to the right of property in them. This 
involves the proposition that there was no paramount law of nature 
which courts could act upon prohibiting negro slavery. (^Maldrazo v. 
Willes, 3 B. and Aid., 353; 18 Pick., 215; Smith V. Brown, Salk., 
666 ; Cases cited in note, 20 State Trials, 51 ; The slave Grace, 2 Hagg. 
Adm., 104.) (3) The highest courts of England and of this country 
having jurisdiction over questions of public or international law, have 
decided that holding negroes in bondage as slaves is not contrary to 
the law of nations. {The Antelope, 10 Wheat., 66; 18 Pick., 211 ; The 
slave Grace, 2 Hagg. Adm., 104, 122.) (4) When Justinian says, in 
his Institutes, (hook 1, tit. 2, § 2,) and elsewhere, that slavery is con- 
trary to the law of nature, he means no more than that it does not 
exist by nature, but is introduced by human law, which is true of most, 
if not all, other rights and obligations. His definition of the law of 
nature (hook 1, tit. 2,) de jure naturali, proves this ; his full sanction 
of slavery in hook 1, (tit. 3, § 2, tit. 8, § 1,) contirm it. {Ciishings 
Domat., § 97 ; Boivycr on Puhlic Law, 48.) (5) All perfect rights, 
cognizable or enforceable as such in judicial tribunals, exist only by 
virtue of the law of that state or country in which they are claimed 
or asserted. The whole idea of property arose from compact. It 
has no origin in any law of nature, as supposed in the court below. 
(5 Sandf., 711 ; Rutherforth's Inst., book 1, ch. 3, § 6, 7.) (6) The law 
of nature spoken of by law writers, if the phrase has any practical 
import, means that morality which its notions of policy leads each 



454 PULPIT POLITICS. 

nation to recognize as of universal obligation, -wliicli it therefore ob- 
serves itself, and so far as it may, enforces upon others. It cannot bo 
pretended that there ever was in England, or that there now is in any 
State of this Union, a law, by any name, thus outlawing negro slavery. 
The common law of all these countries has always regarded it as the 
basis of individual rights ; and statute laws, in all of them, recognized 
and enforced it. {The slave Grace^ 2 Hagg. Adm.^ 104; Per Shaw, 
Ch. J., 18 Pick., 215; 1 Kent, 2, 3; id., 2; 2 Wood's Ovil Law, 2.) 
(a) No civilized state on earth can maintain this absolute outlawry of 
negro slavery ; for, in some of its forms, slavery has existed in all 
ages ; and no lawgiver of paramount authority has ever condemned it. 
(Coopers Justinian, notes, 410, Inst., hook 1, tit. 3; Per Bartley, Ch. 
J., 6 Ohio iV. ;S^., 724; Senator Benjamin, 1858.) (h) It has never 
been determined by the judicial tribunals of any country, that any 
right, otherwise perfect, loses its claim to protection by the mere fact 
of its being founded on the ownership of a negro slave. (7) The 
proposition that freedom is the general rule and slavery the local ex- 
ception, has no foundation in any just view of the law as a science. 
Equally groundless is the distinction taken by Judge Paine between 
slave property and other movables, (a) Property in movables does 
not exist by nature, neither is there any common law of nations touch- 
ing its acquisition or transfer. (Bowyer on Universal Public Laio, 50.) 
Every title to movables must have an origin in some law. That origin 
is always in and by the municipal law of the place where it is acquired, 
and such law never has per se any extra territorial operation, (c) When 
the movables, with or without the presence of their owner, come 
within any other country than that under whose laws the title to them 
was acquired, it depends on the will of such latter State how far it will 
take notice of and recognize, quoad such property and its owner, the 
foreign law. {Bank of Augusta v. Earle, 13 Pet., 589.) (d) It has 
become a universal practice among civilized nations to recognize such 
foreign law except so far as it may be specially proscribed. This 
usage amounts to an agreement between the nations, and hence the 
idea of property by the so-called law of nations, (c) Hence it will 
be seen that property in African negroes is not an exception to any 
general rule. Upon rational principles, it is no more local or peculiar 
than any other property. And there is so much of universality about 
it that in no civilized State or country could it be absolutely denied 
all legal protection. 4. In fact there is no" violation of the principles, 
of enlightened justice nor any departure from the dictates of pure 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY POLITICIANS. 455 

benevolence in holding negroes in a state of slavery. (1) Men, 
whether black or white, can not exist with ordinary comfort and in 
reasonable safety otherwise than in the social state. (2) Negroes, 
alone and unaided by the guardianship of another race, cannot sustain 
a civilized social state, (a) This proposition does not require for its 
support an assertion or denial of the unity of the human race, the ap- 
plication of Noah's malediction, (9 Geo., 582), or the possibility that 
time has changed, and may again change, the Ethiopian's physical and 
moral nature, (h) It is only necessary to view the negro as he is, and 
to credit the palpable and undeniable truth, that the latter phenome- 
non cannot happen within thousands of years. For all the ends of juris- 
prudence this is a perpetuity. {Facciolatis Latin Lexicon JEtluops.) 
(c) The negro never has sustained a civilized social organization, and 
that he never can, is sufficiently manifest from history. It is proven by 
the rapid, though gradual, retrogression of Hayti toward the profouud- 
est depths of destitution, ignorance, and barbarism. (^McCullougTis 
Geo., Hayti, G93, 694 ; Dc Bow's Rev., vol. 24, 203.) (cZ) That, alone and 
unaided, he never can sustain a civilized social organization, is proven 
to all reasonable minds by the fact that one single member of his race 
has never attained proficiency in any art or science requiring the 
employment of high intellectual capacity. A mediocrity below the 
standard of qualification for the important duties of government, for 
guiding the afi'airs of society, or for progress in the abstract sciences, 
may be common in individuals of other races ; but it is universal 
among the negroes. Not one single negro has ever risen above it. 
(Afalte Bruns Geo., hook 59, 8; Gregoire's Literature of the Negroes; 
Biog. Univ. Supt., vol. 56, 83, Grcgoire.) ((?) It follows, that in order 
to obtain the measure of reasonable personal enjoyment and of useful- 
ness to himself and others for which he is adapted by nature, the 
negro must remain in a state of pupilage under the government of 
some other race. (/) He is a child of the sun. In cold climates he 
perishes ; in the territories adapted to his labors, and in which alone 
his race can be perpetuated, he will not toil save on compulsion, and 
the white man can not; but each can perform his appointed task — the 

negro can labor, the white man can govern (c) Who 

shall deny the claim of the int( Uectual white race to its compensation 
for the mental toil of governing and guiding the negro laborer? The 
learned and skillful statesman, soldier, physician, preacher, or other 
expert in any great department of human exertion where mind holds 
dominion over matter, is clothed with power, and surrounded with 



456 PULPIT POLITICS. 

materials for the enjoyment of mental and physical luxuries, in pro- 
portion to the measure of his capacity and attainments. And all this 
is at the cost of the mechanical and agricultural laborer, to whom such 
enjoyments are denied. If the social order, founded in the different 
natural capacities of individuals in the same family, which produces 
these inequalities, is not unjust, who can rightfully say of the like in- 
equality in condition between races differing in capacity, that it is con- 
trary to the law of nature, or that the governing race who conform to 
it are guilty of fraud and rapine, or that they commit a violence to 
right reason which is forbidden by morality. (4) 'Soneste vivere, 
alterum non Icedere et suum cuique tribuere,^ are all the precepts of the 
moral law. The honorable slaveholder keeps them as perfectly as any 
other member of human society. (^List., hook 1, tit. 1, § 3 ; 1 JSl. Com., 
409; Georgia, 582.)" .... 

Section II. — The Slavery Agitation in the Halls of 
Congress. 

It is not our purpose to enter minutely into the history of the 
abolition controversy in Congress, as that itself would fill a vol- 
ume ; but to present such portions of the debates as will enable 
the reader to understand the character of the assaults made upon 
the South, and the spirit in which the assailants were met by the 
members from that section of the Union. We pass over the 
period of " Nullification," by South Carolina, and take up the 
Congressional Globe for the Session beginning December, 1835. 

There had been no political organization of the abolitionists at 
this date, and the ecclesiastical action alone had preceded the 
prevailing excitements. This action had then nearly spent its 
force, and politicians were calculating how they could best turn 
its results to their own advantage. But while the clergymen and 
politicians had each their distinct aims to accomplish — the first 
to free the church and country from slavery, and the second 
to promote their own political advancement — there was another 
class, as we shall see, who attempted so to control the abolition 
element as to make it subservient to the promotion of sectional 
interests. New England was becoming largely interested in 
manufactures, and needed a tariff of protection ; but this she 
could not secure permanently, so long as the South and West had 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 457 

the preponderance in Congress. Southern interests demanded 
free trade ; and therefore, so long as slavery continued to extend, 
New England could not feel secure in her control of the national 
legislation. Abolition thus became an essential adjunct of New 
England policy, because of its being the irreconcilable enemy of 
the South. 

We do not intend to be understood as saying that every man 
engaged in advancing abolitionism was doing so to promote the 
economical interests of New England. By no means. Each 
abolitionist had his own purposes to subserve — some purely phil- 
anthropic, others partly or wholly selfish. Abolitionists, gener- 
ally, were not far-seeing men — they never have been so — they 
never have been able to foresee the results of their own meas- 
ures ; they have, therefore, been the more easily controlled by 
the designing men who undertook to make them an agency for 
building up the interests of New England, by overwhelming in 
ruin her great antagonist, the South. But we must proceed. 

To such an extent had the abolition agitation affected the pub- 
lic mind, in 1835, that General Jackson, then President of the 
United States, felt himself constrained to notice the progress of 
abolitionism in his annual message. The following extract from 
that document, will serve to show the apprehensions of danger 
to the Union, from the abolition movement, which he entertained, 
and will be an appropriate introduction to the discussions in Con- 
gress which followed : 

" In connectiou with these provisions in relation to the Post Office 
Department, I must also invite your attention to the painful excite- 
ment produced in the South, by attempts to circulate through the 
mails inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, 
in prints, and in various sorts of publications, calculated to stimulate 
them to insurrection, and to produce all the horrors of a servile war. 

"There is, doubtless, no respectable portion of our countrymen who 
can be so far misled as to feel any other sentiment than that of indig- 
nant regret at conduct so destructive of the harmony and peace of the 
country, and so repugnant to the principles of our national compact, 
and to the dictates of humanity and religion. Our happiness and 
prosperity essentially depend upon peace within our borders; and 



458 PULPIT POLITICS. 

peace depends upon the maintenance, in good faith, of those compro- 
mises of the Constitution upon which the Union is founded. 

" It is fortunate for the country that the good sense, and generous 
feeling, and the deep-rooted attachment of the people of the non-slave- 
holding States to the Union, and to their fellow-citizens of the same 
blood in the South, have given so strong and impressive a tone to the 
sentiments entertained against the proceedings of the misguided per- 
sons who have engaged in these unconstitutional and wicked attempts, 
and especially against the emissaries from foreign parts, who have 
dared to interfere in this matter, as to authorize the hope that those 
attempts will no longer be persisted in. But if these expressions of 
the public will shall not be sufficient to effect so desirable a result, not 
a doubt can be entertained that the non-slavehoiding States, so far 
from countenancing the slightest interference with the constitutional 
rights of the South, will be prompt to exercise their authority in sup- 
pressing, as far as in them lies, whatever is calculated to produce this 
evil. 

" In leaving the care of other branches of this interesting subject to 
the State authorities, to whom they properly belong, it is, nevertheless, 
proper for Congress to take such measures as will prevent the Post 
Office Department, which was designed to foster an amicable inter- 
course and correspondence between all the members of the confeder- 
acy, from being used as an instrument of an opposite character. The 
General Government, to which the trust is confided of preserving in- 
violate the relations created among the States by the Constitution, is 
especially bound to avoid in its own action anything that may disturb 
them. I would, therefore, call the especial attention of Congress to 
the subject, and respectfully suggest the propriety of passing such a 
law as will prohibit, under severe penalties, the circulation, in the 
Southern States, through the mail, of incendiary publications intended 
to instigate the slaves to insurrection." * 

On the 16th of December, 1835, petitions were presented to 
the House, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia. On motion to lay on the table, they were thus dis- 
posed of by a vote of 180 to 31. On the 18th of the same month, 
similar petitions were again presented ; and at various subsequent 
periods they continued to pour in upon both Senate and House. 

* Congressional Globe, vol. Sd, page 10, 1835. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 459 

A few extracts from the speeches of the members will serve to 
show what was then the sentiment in relation to this iNorthern 
interference with Southern rights. 

Mil. Hammond, of South Carolina, moved 

"That the petitions be uot received. The large majority by which 
the House had rejected a similar petition a few days ago, had been 
very gratifying to him, and no doubt would be to the whole South. 
. . . He was not disposed to go into the discussion of the question 
involved in the petitions ; though, should it be urged, he would not 
shrink from it a hair's breadth ; but he did think it due to the House 
and the country, to give at once the most decisive evidence of the sen- 
timents entertained here upon this subject. He wished to put an end 
to these petitions. He could not sit there and submit to their being 
brought forward until the House had become callous to their conse- 
quences. He could not sit there and see the rights of the Southern 
people assaulted, day after day, by the ignorant fanatics from whom 
these memorials proceed."* 

Mr. Pierce, of New Hampshire, said : 

. . . . " He was unwilling that any imputation should rest 
upon the North, in consequence of the misguided and fanatical zeal 
of a few — eompaj^tively very few — who, however honest might have 
been their purposes, he believed had done incalculable mischief, and 
whose movements he knew received no more sanction among the great 
mass of the people of the North, than they did at the South. 

" For one, said Mr. Pierce, while he would be the last to infringe 
upon any of the sacred reserved rights of the people, he was prepared 
to stamp with disapprobation, in the most express and unequivocal 
terms, the whole movement upon this subject He felt con- 
fidence in asserting that among the people of the State which he had 
the honor, in part, to represent, there was not one in a hundred who 
did not entertain the most sacred regard for the rights of their South- 
ren brethren — nay, not one in five hundred who would not have thobe 
rights protected at any and every hazard. There was not the slightest 
disposition to interfere with any rights secured by the Constitution, 
which binds together, and which he humbly hoped ever would bind 
together, this great and glorious confederacy as one family. "f 



Congressional Globe, Dec. 1835, page 27. t Ibid., page 33 



460 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Mr. Slade, of Vermont, said : 

" One of the objections he had heard strongly insisted on, was that 
abolition had a tendency to disturb the balance of the Constitution. 
He contended that the balance was disturbed on the other side by 
the gradual increase of slavery. It would not be long before the 
representation of the slave-holding States would far outweigh the 
proportions settled under the Constitution. And this was not through 
the relative increase of the white, but the black population. In the 
State of Virginia, the increase of the whites had been eighty -four, 
while that of »the blacks had been one hundred and thirty-six ; and 
in South Carolina the increase of the whites had been forty-four and 
a fraction, while that of the blacks had been ninety-four and a half 
per cent. This fact, he contended, would show that the progress of 
abolition was necessary to preserve the balance of the Constitution, 
or rather to restore it, for it had been already disturbed by the pur- 
chase of Louisiana." =^ (1) 

Mr. Mann, of New York, said : 

" The Union and the Constitution, sir, were the result of conces- 
sion and compromise. The subject under debate formed one of the 
points. "We agreed — we entered into the compact with our Southern 
brethren ; and the question now presented by them to us — the real 
question (when the argument is pushed to the full extent) pro- 
pounded to us of the North, is whether we will live up to the bar- 
gain we have made — to the compact and union we have entered into ? 
For myself, for my constituents and friends, I answer, without hesita- 
tion or mental reservation, that under all circumstances and in every 
vicissitude, good or evil, we will — we will, though the Heavens 
fall."t(2) 

Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, said : 

" He saw, in these petitions, that eleven of the States of the Union 
were grossly slandered, and no man could put his hand on his heart 
and say otherwise. They had refused to receive petitions because 
they implicated members of that body, and were they to receive 
petitions in which eleven of the States were deeply, basely, and 
maliciously slandered ? Were they to put more reprobation on the 

♦Congressional Globe, Dec. 1835, page 49. t Ibid., page 46. 



MOVEMENTS OP TUE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 461 

slander of an individual member tliau on tlie slander of sovereign 
States ? 

" He demanded tlie question, because these memorials aimed at a 
violation of the Constitution. We have not the power, said he, under 
the Constitution, to interfere with the subject of slavery. He and his 
constituents understood this question. This was a preliminary aboli- 
tion movement. These abolitionists moved first upon the District of 
Columbia, which was the weakest point, in order to operate afterward 
on the States ; and he would resist them as firmly in this movement, 
as he would on the direct question of emancipation. He demanded 
the preliminary question as to receiving these petitions, because he 
was averse to an agitation which would sunder this Union. Sir, said 
he, we fear not these incendiary pamphlets in the South. The South 
was too well aware of what is due to itself, to permit the circulation 
of those pamphlets. It was agitation here that they feared, because 
it would compel the Southern press to discuss the question in the very 
presence of the slaves, who were induced to believe that there was a 
powerful party at the North ready to assist them. He objected to 
receiving these petitions, because the country was deeply agitated by 
them ; because they were sundering the bonds which held this Union 
together. As a lover of the Union, he objected to receiving them ; 
nay, they must cease, or the South orn people never can be satisfied. 
And how (asked Mr. C.) will you put a stop to them? By receiving 
these petitions, and laying them on the table? No, no ! The aboli- 
tionists understand this too well. Nothing would stop them but a 
stern refusal ; by closing the doors to them, and refusing to receive 
them." * 

Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, said : 

" They of the South had a right, under the Constitution, to demand 
some other action than the Government had pursued. He referred 
to the meetings held by abolitionists — the apostles they had sent out 
to preach their doctrines — the circulation of publications of every 
species, and their exciting character. All of them had seen these 
things, and he felt called upon to keep the South informed of them. 
They were calculated to spread terror throughout the South. Men's 
minds had already been disturbed there. The Government had been 
called upon to act upon them. They could not sit by, and see the 

♦Congressional Globe, January, 1836, page 77. 



462 PULPIT POLITICS. 

character of their constituents aspersed by ignorant, blood-thirsty 
ftinatics. They were bound to appeal to the Government. For one, 
he did not fear an interference in the rights of the South. You 
cannot, said he, interfere with them, either in polities, in religion, in 
morals, or physical means. They were bound to defend, by all the 
means the God of nature had put into their power, against these 
incendiary attempts to wrap their land in flames, and to deluge it in 
blood. Sir, said he, they are filling our houses, our fields, and our 
hearths, with implacable murderers, and robbing us of our thousands ! 
Sir, we demand repose ! We insist that the Government shall say to 
us, in intelligible language, that you cannot legislate upon this sub- 
ject — that you cannot receive the petitions of these hot-headed and 
cold-hearted fanatics — these men, women,* and children, who are 
waging a war of extermination against us. In this free government, 
said Mr. P., it may be impossible for the government authorities to 
stop them entirely ; but, said he, we ask that Congress will distinctly 
and positively interfere between us and these fanatics, and that the 
General Government will not directly or indirectly be an agent in this 
svstem of destruction. I fear, unless it stands as an impassable bar- 
rier between these people and us, that the consequences will be ter- 
rible. We, in the South, exist under a bond of necessity which 
cannot be broken — our lives and our property are the ligaments that 
bind us together. Civil war was terrible — to the ratiocinations of the 
mind, it was dreadful. Interference must be direct or indirect. The 
people of the South demanded such action of Congress on these 
petitions, as would leave no possible doubt between them and this 
exciting subject. It was a matter on which there could be no differ- 
ence of opinion. He abhorred the idea of mixing up politics with 
it. Their sole object was to protect their property and their lives. 
In a political point of view, it was extremely important to prevent 
aeitation on this subject. He spoke of its bearings upon difi'erent 
sections of the country, and. said he, the overwhelming vortex of 
politics sweeps everything before it." j 

Mr. BucHAXAX, of Pennsylvania, said : 

" If any one principle of Constitutional law can, at this day, be 
considered as settled, it is, that Congress have no right, no power, 

* Several of the petitions were signed by women, 
t Congressional Globe, Jan. 1836, page 78, 



MOVEJIENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS- -IN CONGRESS. 463 

over the question of slavery in tlie States wliere it exists. The prop- 
erty of the master in his shive existed in full force before the Fed- 
eral Constitution was adopted. It was a subject which then belonged, 
as it still belongs, to the exclusive jurisdiction of the several States. 
These States, by the adoption of the Constitution, never yielded to 
the General Government any right to interfere with the question. 
It remains where it was previous to the establishment of our con- 
federacy. 

" The Constitution has, in the clearest terms, recognized the right 
of property in slaves. It prohibits any State into which a slave may 
have fled from passing any law to discharge him from slavery, and 
declares that he shall be delivered up by the authorities of such 
State to his master. Nay, more, it makes the existence of slavery 
the foundation of political power, by giving to those States within 
which it exists representatives in Congress not only in proportion to 
the whole number of free persons, but also in proportion to three- 
fifths of the number of slaves. 

" An occasion very fortunately arose in the first Congress to settle 
this question forever. The Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 
Pennsylvania brought it before that Congress by a memorial, which 
was presented on the 11th day of February, 1790. After the subject 
had been discussed for several days, and after solemn deliberation, 
the House of Representatives, in Committee of the Whole, on the 
23d day of March, 1790, resolved, ' That Congress have no authority 
to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them 
within any of the States ; it remaining with the several States alone 
to provide any regulations therein, which humanity and true policy 
may require.' 

"I have thought it would be proper to present this decision, which 
was made about a half century ago, distinctly to the view of the 
American people. The language of the resolution is clear, precise, 
and definite. It leaves the question where the Constitution left it, 
and where, so far as I am concerned, it ever shall remain. The Con- 
stitution of the United States never would have been called into 
existence — instead of the innumerable blessings which have flowed 
from our happy Union, we should have had anarchy, jealousy, and 
civil war among the sister republics of which our confederacy is 
composed — had not the free States abandoned all control over this 
question. For one, whatever may be my opinions upon the abstract 
question of slavery, and I am free to confess they are those of the 



46-4 PULPIT POLITICS. 

people of Pennsylvania, I sliall never attempt to violate this compact. 
The Union will be dissolved, and incalculable evils will arise from its 
ashes, the moment any attempt is seriously made by the free States 
iu Congress, 

" What, then, are the circumstances under which these memorials 
are now presented ? A number of fanatics, led on by foreign incen- 
diaries, have been scattering 'arrows, firebrands, and death,' through- 
out the southern States. The natural tendency of their publications 
is to produce dissatisfaction and revolt among the slaves, and to 
incite their wild passions to vengeance. All history, as well as the 
present condition of the slaves, proves that there can be no danger of 
the final result of a servile war. But, in the meantime, what dread- 
ful scenes may be enacted, before such an insurrection, which would 
spare neither age nor sex, could be suppressed ! What agony of 
mind must be suffered, especially by the gentler sex, in consequence 
of these publications ! Many a mother clasps her infant to her 
bosom, when she retires to rest, under the dreadful apprehensions that 
she may be aroused from her slumbers by the savage yells of the 
slaves by whom she is surrounded. These are the work of the 
abolitionists. That their motives may be honest, I do not doubt; 
but their zeal is without knowledge. The history of the human race 
presents numerous examples of ignorant enthusiasts, the purity of 
whose intentions cannot be doubted, who have spread devastation and 
bloodshed over the face of the earth." ^ 

Mr. Benton, of Missouri, said : 

" With respect to the petitioners, and those with whom they acted, 
he had no doubt but many of them were good people, aiming at 
benevolent objects, and endeavoring to ameliorate the condition of 
one part of the human race, without inflicting calamities on another 
part ; but they were mistaken in their mode of proceeding, and so 
far from accomplishing any part of their object, the whole effect of 
their interposition was to aggravate the condition of those in whose 
behalf they were interfering. But there was another part, and he 
meant to speak of the abolitionists generally, as the body containing 
the part of which he spoke — there was another part, whom he could 
not qualify as good people seeking benevolent ends by mistaken 
means, but as incendiaries and agitators, with diabolical objects in 

* Congressional Globe, January, 1836, page 78. 



MOVExMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 465 

view, to be accomplislied by wicked and- deplorable means. He did 
not go into the proofs now to establish the correctness of his opinion 
of this latter class, but he presumed it would be admitted that every 
attempt to work upon the passions of the slaves, and to excite them to 
murder their owners, was a wicked and diabolical attempt, and the 
work of a midnight incendiary. Pictures of slave degradation and 
misery, and of the white man's luxury and cruelty, were attempts of 
this kind ; for they were appeals to the vengeance of slaves, and not to 
the intelligence or reason of those who legislated for them. lie, Mr. 
Benton, had had many pictures of this kind, as well as many diaboli- 
cal publications, sent to him at St. Louis, during the past summer, the 
whole of which he had cast into the fire, and should not have thought 
of referring to the circumstance at this time, as displaying the incen- 
diary part of the abolitionists, had he not, within these few days past, 
and while abolition petitions were pouring into the other end of the 
capital, received one of these pictures, the design of which could be 
nothing but mischief of the blackest dye. It was a print from an 
engraving, (and Mr. Benton exhibited it, and handed it to senators 
near him,) representing a large and spreading tree of liberty, beneath 
whose ample shade a slave owner was at one time luxuriously reposing, 
with slaves fanning him ; at another, carried forth in a palanquin to 
view the half-naked laborers in the cotton-field, whose drivers, with 
whips, were scourging to the task. The print was evidently from the 
abolition mint, and came to him by some other conveyance than that 
of the mail, for there was no post-mark, or maik of any kind, to iden- 
tify its origin, and to indicate its line of march. For what purpose 
could such a picture be intended, unless to inflame the passions of the 
slaves? and why i3ngrave it, except to multiply copies for extensive 
distribution ? But it was not pictures alone that operated on the pas- 
sions of the slaves, but speeches, publications, petitions presented to 
Congress, and the whole machinery of abolition societies. None of 
these things went to the understandings of the slaves, but to their 
passions, all imperfectly understood, and inspiring vague hopes, and 
stimulating abortive and fatal insurrections. * 

"Societies especially were the foundation of the greatest mischiefs. 
Whatever might be their objects, the slaves never did, and never can, 
understand them but in one way ; as allies organized for action, and 
ready to march to their aid on the first signal of insurrection ! It was 
thus that the massacre of San Domingo was made. The Society in 

* The Nat. Turner slave insurrection in Virginia had taken place iu 1831. 

30 



466 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Paris, Les Amis des Nbis, Friends of the Blacks, with its affiliated 
societies throughout France, and in London, made that massacre- 
And who composed that society? In the beginning it comprised the 
extremes of virtue and vice ; it contained the best and the basest of 
human kind ! Lafayette, and the Abbe Gregoire, those purest of 
philanthropists, and Marat and Anacharsis Clootz, those imps of hell 
in human shape. In the end, for all such societies run the same ca- 
reer of degeneration, the good men, disgusted with their associates, 
retired from the scene, and the wicked ruled at pleasure. Declama- 
tions against slavery, publications in gazettes, pictures, petitions to the 
Constituent xissembly, were the mode of proceeding ; and the fish- 
women of Paris — he said it with humiliation, because American 
females had signed the petitions now before us — the fish-women of 
Paris, the very poissardes from the quays of the Seine, became the 
obstreperous champions of West India emancipation. The eiFeet upon 
the French Island is known to the world ; but what is not known to 
the world, or not sufficiently known to it, is that the same societies 
which wrapt in flames, and drenched in blood, the beautiful island 
which was then a garden and now a wilderness, were the means of 
exciting an insurrection on our own continent — in Louisiana — where 
a French slave population existed, and where the language of Les 
Amis des Nbirs could be understood, and where their emissaries could 
glide. The knowledge of this event, Mr. Benton said, ought to be 
better known, both to show the danger of these societies, however 
distant, and though oceans may roll between them and their victims, 
and the fate of the slaves who may be excited to insurrection by then 
on any part of the American continent. He would read the notice of 
the event from the work of Mr. Charles Guyarre, lately elected by his 
native State to a seat on this floor, and whose resignation of that hono» 
he sincerely regretted, and particularly for the cause which occasioned 
it, and which abstracted talent from a station it would have adorned. 
Mr. Benton read from the work, ' Essai Historiquc Sur la Louisiane : ' 
* The white population of Louisiana was not the only part of the popu- 
lation that was agitated by the French llevolution. The blacks, en- 
couraged, without doubt, by the success which their race had obtained 
in San Domingo, dreamed of liberty, and sought to shake ofi" the yoke. 
The insurrection was planned at Pointe Coupee, which was then an 
isolated parish, and of which the number of slaves was considerable. 
The conspiracy took birth on the plantation of Mr. Julien Poydras, a 
rich planter, who was then traveling in the United States, and spread 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 467 

itself rapidly throughout the parish. The death of all the whites was 
resolved. Happily, the conspirators could not agree upon the day for 
the massacre, and from this disagreement resulted a quarrel, which led 
to the discovery of the plot. The militia of the parish immediately 
took up arms, and the Earon de Carondelet caused them to be sup- 
ported by the troops of the line. It was resolved to arrest, and to 
punish the principal conspirators. The slaves opposed it ; but they 
were quickly dispersed, with the loss of twenty of their number killed 
on the spot. Fifty of the insurgents were condemned to death. Six- 
teen were executed in ditFercnt parts of the parish ; the rest were put 
on board a galley, and hung, at intervals, all along the river, as far as 
New Orleans, (a distance of one hundred and fifty miles.) The severity 
of the chastisement intimidated the blacks, and all returned to perfect 
order.' 

"Resuming his remarks, Mr. Benton said, he had read this passage 
to show that our white population had a right to dread, nay, were 
bound to dread, the mischievous influence of these societies, even 
when an ocean intervened, and, much more, when they stood upon the 
same hemisphere, and within the bosom of the same country. He 
also read it to show the miserable fate of their victims, and to warn 
all that were good and virtuous — all that were honest, but mistaken — 
in the three hundred and fifty affiliated societies vaunted by the indi- 
viduals who style themselves their executive committee, and who date 
from the commercial emporium of this Union their high manifesto 
against the President — to warn them at once to secede from associa- 
tions which, whatever may be their designs, can have no other eflPect 
than to revive in the southern States the tragedy, not of San Domingo, 
but of the Parish of Pointe Coupee. 

" Mr. Benton went on to say, that these societies had already per- 
petrated more mischief than the joint remainder of all their lives, 
spent in prayers of contrition, and in works of retribution, could ever 
atone for. They had thrown the state of the emancipation question 
fifty years back. They had subjected every traveler and every emi- 
grant from the non-slaveholding States to be received with coldness, 
and viewed with suspicion and jealousy, in the slaveholding States: . . 

" Having said thus much of the abolition societies in the non-slave- 
holding States, Mr. Benton turned with pride and exultation to a 
different theme — the conduct of the great body of the people in all 
these States. Before he saw that conduct, and while the black ques- 
tion, like a portentous cloud, was gathering and darkening on the 



468 PULPIT POLITICS. 

north-eastern liorizon, lie trembled, not for the South, but for the 
Union. He feared that he saw the fatal work of dissolution about to 
begin, and the bonds of this glorious confederacy about to snap ; but 
the conduct of the great body of the people in all the non-slavehold- 
ing States quickly dispelled that fear, and in its place planted deep 
the strongest assurance of harmony and indivisibility of the Union 
which he had felt for many years. Their conduct was above all 
praise, above all thanks, above all gratitude. They had chased off 
the foreign emissaries, silenced the gabbling tongues of female dupes, 
and dispersed the assemblages, whether fanatical, visionary, or incen- 
diary, of all that congregated to preach against evils which afflicted 
others, not them, and to propose remedies to aggravate the disease 
which they pretended to cure. They had acted with a noble spirit. 
They had exerted a vigor beyond all law. They had obeyed the en- 
actments, not of the statute-book, but of the heart; and while that 
spirit was in the heart, he cared nothing for laws written in a book. 
He would rely upon that spirit to complete the work it has begun — to 
dry up these societies — to separate the mistaken philanthropist from 
the reckless fanatic and the wicked incendiary, and put an end to pub- 
lications and petitions which, whatever may be their design, can have 
no other effect than to impede the object which they invoke, and to 
aggravate the evil which they deplore. 

"Turning to the immediate question before the Senate, that of the 
rejection of the petition, Mr. Benton said his wish was to give that vote 
which would have the greatest effect in putting down these societies." * 

Mr. Grundy, of Tennessee, said : 

" He thought he was not mistaken when he declared that the mo- 
ment the citizens of the non-slaveholding States should, in violation 
of the Constitution, lay their hands on the property of the slavehold- 
ing States, the citizens of the latter would instantly consider the Union 
dissolved, and the Government at an end. They could no longer con- 
fide in a government which, instead of protecting, plundered them of 
their property. The right of property in slaves is guaranteed to the 
citizens of the States where slavery exists by the Constitution as fully as 
the right to any other species of property ; and should the non-slavehold- 
ing States at any time violate these guarantees in so important a particular 
as this, it would be such a departure from the great principles of the com- 

* Congressional Globe, Jan. 183G, pages 79 and 80. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 469 

pact, that the injured party would at once be absolved from all the obli- 
gations it imposes on them. It would be impossible tamely to submit to 
it. The citizens of the slaveholding States, therefore, entreat those of 
the non-slaveholding States to step forward and put down this spirit 
of abolition, before it produces the ruin of this Government. .... 
These abolitionists reside among them. There they have to be met. 
There the battle has to be fought. They are beyond our reach. If a 
straggler comes among us propagating his insurrectionary and incen- 
diary doctrines, he is sent away with an admonition which will prevent 
his return. This is done in defense of ourselves. No other way is 
known by which the mischief growing out of this plan of abolition 
can be prevented. Therefore, as we have no power to reach these 
abolitionists, as we can not prevent their incendiary publications, we 
ask our brethren of the North and East to persevere in their efforts in 
putting down the labors of these men, which must terminate, unless 
they are arrested, in the destruction of ourselves and families. If a 
man, whether madman, fanatic, or worse than either, shall be seen 
approaching a neighbor's house with a lighted torch, to consume it, 
ought not all good men to arrest him and prevent the mischief? It 
therefbre seems, said Mr. Grundy, that too much is not asked, when 
we say to our friends at the North that it is their duty to adopt such 
means as will pr'jTont the threatened danger.-!- (3) 

Mr. PiNCKNEY, of South Carolina, in reply to inquiries made 
of him as a member of the committee on the abolition peti- 
tions, said : 

" That the whole number of memorials presented to Congress this 
session, amounted to 17G ; that they came fVom ten States, embracing 
an aggregate population of nearly 8,000,000 ; that the whole number 
of signatures was about 34,000 ; and that of those, more than two- 
fifths were females. He thought these facts ought to be known. The 
people of the South ought to know everything respecting these me- 
morials. They could see the immense disproportion between the 
millions of freemen who are determined to maintain their constitu- 
tional obligations to their southern brethren, and the band of in- 
cendiary agitators who would trample on all laws, human and divine, 
in the relentless prosecution of their diabolical designs. He believed 
that there never was a healthier tone of sentiment in the non-slave- 

* CongressiouHl Globe, March, 1836, page 215. 



470 PULPIT POLITICS. 

holding States, in reference to the domestic institutions of the South, 
than at this moment. There was, unquestionably, abundant reason 
for vigilance and caution in relation to the fanatics ; but there was 
also abundant reason to rely on the enlightened patriotism of the 
non-slaveholding States. There are great moral causes at work in 
favor of the South. We should trust their efficacy, and watch their 
progress. The people of the non-slaveholding States are alive to the 
dangers connected with this question, and they are generously fight- 
ing the battle of the South. They should be encouraged by confi- 
dence and gratitude, not repelled by vituperation and suspicion. . . 
The South had nothing now to fear, except from those who are de- 
termined to continue the agitation of slavery for the purpose of 
excitement. Abolitionism has attained its hight ; it has begun to go 
down, and will soon disappear entirely, if we do not fan the flame 
ourselves, and will only allow our friends in the non-slaveholding 
States to fight the fanatics in their own way, and not trammel them 
in their operations by mixing up extraneous and unnecessary ques- 
tions with the subject of abolition."* 

Passing on to 1843 and 1844, up to which time the agitation 
of the subject of slavery was continued in Congress, w^e find 
the demands of the northern petitioners had been extended. 
They now required not only the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, but the prohibition of the sale of slaves by 
the citizens of one State to those of another ; and also that 
Texas should not be admitted into the Union as a slave State. 
We have purposely avoided copying the discussions on the 
numerous points raised in the course of the controversy, and 
have aimed at affording a true conception of the views held on 
the main question. 

On the 31st January, 1844, Hon. Andrew Johnson, of Ten- 
nessee, took the floor, and made a speech upon the subject. 
We quote from him, because no one can doubt the sincerity of 
the man, who, when the conflict came, and he was surrounded 
on all hands by enemies, still adhered to the flag of the Union, 
and fought under its folds in defense of the Constitution — wil- 
lingly offering his life for its preservation. 

* Congressional Globe, May 19, 183G, pages 386, 387. 



MOVEMENTS OF TUE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 471 

Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, said : 

" He had a few plain inquiries to make of the abolitionists of the 
country, and their organs in this House. One was, if they had it 
in their power to abolish slavery now, were they prepared to turn over 
two million of negroes loose upon the country, to become a terror and 
burden to society, producing disaffection between them and their for- 
mer masters, finally to be fanned into a flame, wearing into a servile 
war, resulting in the entire extirpation of the race in the United 
States', besides shedding much of the white man's blood? But as you 
have no right to abolish slavery in the United States, or anywhere 
else, are you prepared to tax the owners near ten hundred millions 
of dollars, and then give it back to them for their negroes, in the 
shape of purchase money? This would be legalized robbery. Are 
you prepared to tax the slaveholder and the non-slaveholder indis- 
criminately, ten hundred millions of dollars, to buy slaves, and send 
them to Africa, or anywhere else? This would be plundering one 
portion of the community to remunerate another. These inquiries 
are made for the purpose of bringing the minds of those wild enthu- 
siasts to bear upon the immense importance of this subject. . . . 

" Perhaps it will be considered uncharitable in me to come to the 
conclusion I have upon this subject; but the conviction fixes itself 
upon my mind irresistibly, and I will speak my sentiments, let the 
consequences be what they may. I do believe, and have believed 
for some time, that there is a deliberate design, on the part of some 
gentlemen, to effect, if possible, a dissolution of the Union. But 
when we of the South, who represent the interests of the slave States, 
contend for our rights, gentlemen say, ' ! you are too much ex- 
cited — too much heated; your passion outruns your judgment; any- 
thing that you may say is not entitled to so much weight as that 
which proceeds from our calm and sober judgment.' Excitement! 
What is it which occasions that excitement? Is not the treatment 
which this question receives a sufficient cause for excitement? It 
becomes, in the hands of gentlemen on this floor, a question of dis- 
solution — of Union or no Union — a question in which eleven States 
of this Union are vitally interested; States which possess upward of 
$1,000,000,000 of property in slaves. Yet when you are striking a 
blow which is to destroy that amount of property at once, to expel 
or exclude twenty-one of the ninety-three representatives of the eleven 
slave States from this House — nearly one-fourth of their eniire dele- 



472 PULPIT POLITICS. 

cation — and thereby destroying the great compromise of the Consti- 
tution, agreed upon by the sages and patriots of the Revolution — 
we are told, if we exhibit any feeling on this subject, it is southern 
heat. ! no ; we must not speak upon the subject, unless we are 
perfectly calm and passionless. Let me tell agitators, the more they 
press this question, the greater will be the excitement. It is worse 
than nonsense to talk of making a calm, deliberate appeal to them; 
it will not do ; but when we come to examine the subject, I am 
forced to the conclusion that there is a deliberate design to dissolve 
the Union. (4.) 

'• 3Ir. Johnson here referred to an opinion formerly expressed by 
Mr. J. Q. Adams's father, and read from the fourth volume of Mr. 
Jefferson's Works, as follows : ' December the 13th. 1803. The Rev. 
Mr. Coffin, of New England, who is now here soliciting donations for 
a college in Greene county, Tennessee, tells me that when he first 
determined to engage in this enterprise, he wrote a paper recom- 
mendatory of the enterprise, which he meant to get signed by clergy- 
men, and a similar one for persons in a civil character, at the bend 
of which he wished 3Ir. Adams to put his name — he being the Presi- 
dent of the United States, and the application going only for his 
name, and not for a donation. Mr. Adams, after reading the paper, 
and considering, said he saw no possibility of continuing the union 
of the States ; that their dissolution must necessarily take place ; 
that he, therefore, saw no propriety in recommending to New Eng- 
land men to promote a literary institution in the South ; that it was, 
in fact, giving strength to those who were to be their enemies ; and, 
therefore, would have nothing to do with it.' 

" He, Mr. Johnson, said he had referred to this merely as a starting 
point at which to date the opposition of New England men to the 
Union of the States, and their hostility to the institutions of the 
South. He passed on to the Hartford Convention, spoke of its oppo- 
sition to Mr. Madison's administration, asking a dissolution of the 
Union, throwing every obstacle in the way of a successful prosecu- 
tion of the war — Massachusetts even refusing to let her militia go 
beyond the chartered limits of the State, to meet the invading foe. 
Now. in this House, the same spirit of opposition is followed up by 
J. Q. Adams, endeavoring to destroy the Union and the institutions 
of the South, by the introduction of abolition petitions, and resolu- 
tions from the legislature of Massachusetts, asking an alteration of 
the Constitution that amounts to a dismemberment of the northern 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 473 

and southern States. Mr. J. Q. Adams's son is now in the legislature 
of Massachusetts, engaged in making reports, and procuring the 
passage of disorganizing resolutions, both endeavoring to split the 
Union in twain, thereby proving the father and grandfather to be true 
prophets. Mr. Johnson next referred to the Haverhill petition ; also, 
one from the State of Ohio, asking a dissolution of the Union. lie 
then read extracts from Mr. Adams's speech, made at the extra ses- 
sion of the 27th Congress, upon the 21st rule, prohibiting the recep- 
tion of abolition petitions, to-wit : 

" ' . . . He would say that, if the free portion of this Union 
were called upon to expend their blood and treasure to support that 
cause which had the curse and the displeasure of the Almighty upon 
it, he would say that this same Congress would sanction an expendi- 
ture of blood and of treasure, for that cause itself would come within 
the constitutional action of Congress ; that there would be no longer 
any pretension that Congress had not the right to interfere with the 
institutions of the South, inasmuch as the very fact of the people of 
a free portion of the Union marching to the support of the masters, 
would be an interference with those institutions ; and that in the 
event of a war, (the result of which no man could tell,) the treaty- 
making power become to be equivalent to universal emancipation. 
This was what he had then said, and he would add to it now, that, 
in his opinion, if the decision of this House, taken two days ago, 
should be reversed, and a rule established that the House would 
receive no petition on this subject, the people North would be, ipse 
facto ^ absolved from all obligation to obey any call of Congress.' 

"Mr. Johnson asked, what the paragraph just read, meant; what 
eflfect was it calculated to have upon the abolitionists of the North 
and the slaves of the South ? It is a stimulant to the one, a lure 
thrown out to the other. Is it not saying to the abolitionist of the 
North, Persist in your fiendish purpose ; to the incendiary, who is 
standing with his torch ready lighted, prepared only for the destruc- 
tion of the South — Proceed; touch the match; wrap the dwellings 
of your masters in flames ; produce a servile war ; make it necessary, 
for the preservation of your masters, to call upon the non-slavehold- 
ing States for assistance, ' and under the treaty-making power ' you 
all shall be emancipated ? Gracious God ! are we prepared for scenes 
like these ? are we prepared to surrender our homes and our fire- 
sides ? are we prepared to see our fields, that now, in due season, 
yield luxuriant crops, relapse into their original state, or be converted 



474 PULPIT POLITICS. 

into fields of carnage ? are we prepared to see the black hands of the 
negro reeking in the blood of the white man ? are we prepared to see 
innocent women and children, virtue and beauty, all fall a helpless 
prey? are we prepared to see the land that gave a brother birth, 
drenched with a brother's blood ? in fine, are we prepared to see 
peace, prosperity, contentment, and happiness, converted iuto discord, 
desolation, cries the most heart-rending, lamentations, producing, (to 
use the language of the poet,) shrieks 

" ' So wild, so loud, so clear, 



Even listening angels stooped from heaven to hear ; ' 

and yet to be calm and deliberate ? 

" Mr. Johnson said he wished to call the attention of the South 
to a single sentence in a letter recently written by Mr. Adams to the 
abolitionists of Pittsburgh, to-wit : 

" ' On the subject of abolition, abolition societies, auti-slavery socie- 
ties, or the liberty party, I have never been a member of any of them. 
But in opposition to slavery, I go as far as any of the.se ; my sen- 
timents, I believe, very nearly accord with theirs. That slavery will 
be abolished in this country, and throughout the world, I firmly be- 
lieve. Whether it shall be done peaceably, or by blood, God only 
knows ; but it shall be accomplished, I have no doubt ; and, by what- 
ever way, I say, let it come.' 

" In the sentence he had just read, Mr. Adams says he is no aboli- 
tionist ; but in opposition to slavery he goes as far as any of them; 
and if the emancipation of the negroes in the South ha& to be effected 
by the shedding of blood, he says, ' let it come ?' Can the South be 
mistaken as to the meaning of language like this? Is it not time to 
be on the alert? Is it not time they were roused from their apathy ? 
He said this was a question that the South should unite upon : the 
whole ninety-three members from the eleven slaveholding States 
should come up on this question as a band of brothers, joining in one 
fraternal hug; heart responding to heart; turning their faces toward 
heaven, and swearing, by their altars and their God, that they will 
all sink in the dust together before they will yield the great compro- 
mise contained in the Constitution of their fathers. 

" In a speech made by the gentleman from Massachusetts, a short 
time ago, he says he thinks the consummation of the Christian religion 
will not take place until the emancipation of the negroes is efiected. 
And then, I suppose, we have the commencement of that glorious mil- 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 475 

lemiium wliicli has been so long prophesied. I wish that day would 
come ; but I do not wish to attain it by means of bloodshed and the 
sacrifice of thousands of lives. If I thought it would come in my day 
and generation, I would now be found standing on tip-toe, stretching 
my ken to the utmost tension, anxiously endeavoring to descry in the 
eastern horizon the first streaks of the glorious morning. How grati- 
fying it would be to me to have the power to proclaim that the voice 
of the turtle was heard in the land ; that the winter was past and gone ; 
that the lion and the lamb had lain down together; w^hen all could 
unite in that heart-felt chorus of glory to God in the highest, and 
peace on earth, and good will among men. But while thus indulging 
this pleasing illusion, while thus enjoying this happy aberration of 
mind, (at this moment Mr. Johusou turned his face to Mr. Adams,) 
what ill omen is that obtruding itself so. abruptly upon our view ? 
What evil genius is this hovering around this hall? Is it some demon, 
or a mortal man ? What frightful specter do I behold, sending forth 
such unnatural sounds, predicting disunion, dissevered States, and the 
shedding of human blood ! Frightful vision, this I 

" ' Black he stands as night ; 

Fierce as ten furies ; terrible as hell ; 
And shakes a dreadful dart.' " * 

Mr. GiDDiNGS, of Ohio, said : 

" .... I therefore lay it down as one of the principles on 
which our Federal Constitution was based, that each of the several 
States should retain to themselves and their people, the entire power 
over slavery which they previously enjoyed. In saying this, it is not 
my intention to deny the doctrine advanced by the venerable member 
from Massachusetts, Mr. Adams, ' that in case of war, when tlie exis- 
tence of our government is threatened, we may then avail ourselves 
of that right of self-preservation which is based upon the law of 
nature ; ' and, if necessary to the public safety, may release any por- 
tion, or all, of the slaves in any of the States. It is a power that lies 
behind all Constitutional provisions, and is consequent upon a state of 
war only, but has no application in time of peace. It is, I believe, 
well understood by military men ; it was practiced by General Jackson, 
General Gaines, and General Jessup, and I believe by General Scott, 
while commanding our armies in the South. They did not hesitate to 

* Appendix to Congressional Globe, Jan. 18-14, page 97 



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MOVEMEXXS or THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 477 

the gentleman from Oliio believes the Decalogue to be of divine 
origin? " 

" Mr. Giddings. I do, but I would not if it sanctioned slavery."* 

On May 21, 1844, upon the question of the annexation of 
Texas, Mr. Giddings said : 

"Now, Mr. Chairman, with all due respect to the legal talents and 
constitutional learning of those gentlemen, I may be permitted to 
deny that any guarantee in regard to slavery ever found a place in 
the Federal Constitution. . . . Sir, the idea that the Constitution 
contained a guarantee of slavery is an impeachment both of the sin- 
cerity and judgment of the framers of the charter of American lib- 
erty. ... It was, therefore, a most wise and salutary object with 
the framers of the Constitution, to withhold all power from the 
Federal Government in regard to slavery, except that which has refer- 
ence to fugitives, on which I have already remarked. The safety 
of the South and of the North consists in this wise and salutary ab- 
sence of all power over slavery. It was foreseen by the framers of 
the Constitution, that the subject was of such a delicate character, 
that the Federal Government could not interfere with it in any form, 
without endangering the existence of the Union. I fully understand 
the excuse of Messrs. Upshur and Calhoun for attempting this un- 
constitutional support of slavery. They say that the continuance of 
slavery in the South would be endangered by the abolition of that 
institution in Texas. I answer, that the continuance of slavery in 
Texas will endanger the freedom of Ohio. . . . We have passed 
more than a half century under our present Constitution, and now 
the President assumes to himself the power of making slavery a 
national, instead of a State institution, and of extending the power, 
and influence, and funds, of the Federal Government to its support, 
and to a piratical commerce in mankind. In order to eflfect this 
unholy and nefarious plan, he attempts to bring into this Union a 
foreign slaveholding government, the eifect of which is to place the 
balance of political power in the hands of foreign slaveholders, who 
have no feelings or principles, either moral, religious, or political, in 
common with the great body of the free States, and to transfer the 
descendants of our New England pilgrims to the political control and 
dominion of Texans and foreigners. Nor do his violations of the 

* Appendix to Congressional Globe, Feb. 1844, pages 654, 655. 



478 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Constitution end here ; he has gone farther, and brought our army 
into the field in hostile attitude to a friendly power, with whom we 
are on terms of perfect amity, and has sent a fleet to insult and 
provoke that government to hostilities. In short, sir, he has, of his 
own acts, by his secret orders, without the consent of the people of 
the nation, or their representatives, and without deigning even to eon 
suit his constitutional advisers, suddenly plunged us into a war for 
the openly avowed object and purpose of extending and perpetuat- 
ing slavery. These profligate acts — these usurpations of power — 
these violations of the Constitution — can be characterized by no 
term of milder signification than treason — treason against the rights 
of the people of this nation — treason against the Constitution, and 
treason against humanity itself. I feel it my duty to declare it such 
in the presence of the House, and of the country. . . . 

" But we shall not surrender this Union, sanctioned and sanctified 
by a half century of national prosperity, in order to try a new Union, 
and that, too, with slaveholding Texas ! Sir, every schoolboy must 
see, that to form a new union with any foreign power, would be, 
ipse factOj a dissolution of our present Union. Now I would say to 
an imbecile President, and a demented cabinet, that they have not 
the power to form a union between our people of the free States and 
Texas. If such a union be ever formed, it will be by the voluntary 
acts of the people of our States and those of Texas. The President 
and his cabinet may enter into as many treaties as they please, and 
make such stipulations as they please, and form such unions for 
themselves as they please — we shall adhere to our present Union. 
If they wish to leave this Union and go to Texas, I, for one, will bid 
them ' God speed.' And if any of our southern sister States are 
desirous of leaving our present Union, to form a new compact with 
Texas, let them say so with generous frankness. But if northern 
States prefer adhering to our present Union, and refuse to follow them 
into such new confederacy, do not let them attempt to charge us with 
dissolving the Union. I regret that any northern man should speak 
of dissolving the Union, if Texas be annexed. Such expressions are 
an abuse of language. The act of uniting with Texas would itself 
be the dissolution ; and refusal to unite with that government would 
be to maintain the present Union. ... I wish to call the atten- 
tion of the committee to the expediency of the proposed annexation, 
provided it were possible to eff'ect it. The people of New England 
arc emphatically the moral, political, and religious antipodes of those 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 479 

who reside in Texas. They are not homogeneous. Their interests 
are as widely separated as are their geographical locations, and can 
never be made to unite ! Their habits and their morals are distinct, 
as are their local situations. The protective policy of Neio England 
can never he reconciled to the free-trade p>rinciples of Texas.^- The 
love of universal liberty, so prevalent in New England, is wholly 
incompatible with Texan slavery. No act of Congress, favoring the 
interests or the views of New England, would be acceptable to the 
people of Texas. So, on the other hand, whatever law Congress 
may pass favoring the interests of Texas, will be unacceptable to the 
people of New England." f 

On the question of the annexation of Texas, Mr. Buchanan, 
of Pennsylvania, said : 

" Now, sir, annex Texas to the United States, and we shall luive 
within the limits of our broad confederacy all the favored cotton- 
growing regions of the earth. England will then forever remain 
dependent upon us for the raw material of her greatest manufiicture ; 
and an army of one hundred thousand men would not be so great a 
security for preserving the peace between the two nations as this 
dependence. . ... . 

" It has been strenuously contended that the acquisition of Texas 
would be a violation of the Constitution of the United States ; and 
that no new State can be admitted into the Union, unless it formed 
part of our territory in 1789, when that Constitution was adopted.^ 
On this point I shall be very brief. Mr. Van Buren, in his Texas 
letter, has demonstrated this objection to be wholly unfounded. The 
language of the Constitution is broad and general, embracing in its 
terms all new States, whether these be composed of foreign territory 
or not. It declares that ' new States may be admitted by Congress 
into the Union.' ... It has been said, however, that, admitting 
this construction of the Constitution to be correct, yet, as Texas is 
an independent, State, and not, like Louisiana and Florida, a terri- 
torial dependence of a foreign power, it would be a violation of the 

* Here, in the sentence we have italicized, wo have the true secret of the 
opposition of New England to the extension of slavery. This institution 
demands free trade — New England wants protection. 

t Appendix to Congressional Globe, May, 1844, pages 706, 707. 

JThis was Mr. Chase's "Silver Pitcher" doctrine. 



480 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Constitution to ratify this treaty. And this in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, and in the American Senate ! We had the honor, forsooth, to 
accept the cession of territories from Napoleon Bonaparte and the 
King of Spain, -without ever consulting the wishes of the people 
whom they ceded ; aifd yet we have not the power to accept such a 
cession from the sovereign people themselves of an independent State ' 
I shall not waste time upon such an argument. It would prove that 
if ever (which God forbid) any of the States of this Union should 
shoot madly from their sphere, and establish an independent govern- 
ment, we would possess no constitutional power, upon their own 
earnest entreaty, to restore them to their ancient position." '-^ 

On the question of the annexation of Texas, Mr. Woodbury, 
of New Hampshire, said : 

" If I understand the substance of all the objections to the ratifica- 
tion of the present treaty, whether expressed in resolutions or debate, 
it is this : First, that the Government of the United States does not 
possess the Constitutional right or power to purchase Texas, and admit 
her people into the Union. Next, that the present Government of 
Texas, alone, has not the right or competency to make such a cession 
of her territory and sovereignty. And, finally, that it is not our duty 
at present to complete the cession, even were the right on both sides 

clear The pretense that such a purchase and admission 

into the Union are unconstitutional, is the only plausible justification 
for the otherwise treacherous or fanatical cry of disunion, which so 
often deafens our ears. That cry originated on an occasion almost 
identical with this, when the act for admitting Louisiana as a State, 
in 1811, was pending. 

" In the debate on that occasion, a member from Massachusetts 
overflowed with such threats, till he was called to order for his vio- 
lence, and escaped censure on an appeal from the Speaker's decision 
against him, only from a conviction, in some of his opponents, that his 
threats would prove harmless. It was then the memorable saying was 
first uttered, which is now ringing again in our ears»froni the same 
class of politicians, and from the same State, but with less point and 
elegance in these degenerate days, Mr. Quincy said: 

" ' If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually 
a dissolution of the Union — that it will free the States from their 

* Appendix to Congressional Globe, June, 1844, page 722, wliero Mr. Bu- 
chanan enters very ably into the refutation of abolition views of this question. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 481 

moral obligations ; and that, as it will then be tlie right of all, so it 
will he the duty of some, definitely to prepare for separation — amicably 
if they can, forcibly if they must.' * 

" It is true that the madness of faction can threaten disunion on the 
smallest, as well as greatest occasions, and may at times venture on it, 
unless deterred by a dread of the halter; but it is equally true that 
there is no more real occasion or justification for it now, than there 
was when so much vaporing passed off harmlessly in 1803 and 1811 
about Louisiana, or than there was in the purchase of Florida, in 1819, 
or the admission of Missouri, in 1822. If those purchases and admis- 
sions were constitutional, so are these ; and in order to allay the re- 
newed excitement on this point, (honest with many, I have no doubt,) 
the patience of the Senate is asked a few minutes." 

Mr. Woodbury proceeded Avith the discussion in a very states- 
manlike manner, and with arguments that are conclusive, but we 
can not quote them at large. A few quotations only can be given : 

" Every government that ever yet existed," said Mr. W., "posses.ses 
a competency to add to its territory. It ceases to have the functions 
of an independent nation, if it cannot, by treaty or discovery, ob- 
tain new boundaries for convenience, or new lands for culture, or 
new ports for commerce ; and, as before suggested, it is stripped of the 
national function of acquiring territory, when assailed by unjust war. 
and holding it either for indemnity, or profit, or security. And if we 
can acquire it, reason, as well as the words of the Cou.stitution, re- 
quires us, in due time, to make States out of it, and admit them into 
the Union.— (160.) Story says, in a note to this page, that the Hartford 
Convention proposed to prevent such admission, unless by a vote of 
two-thirds of both Houses; and by a report in that body, indirectly 
denied the authority to admit States or any territory without our 
original limits. But this doctrine has slept with that convention since, 
it is believed, till revived by Mr. Adams, in his Texas speech, in 1838, 
in Congress, and his political address in New York, in 1839. 

*See National Intelligencer, Jan. 19, 1819, and Lambut on Kules, 74th page. 

Mr. Woodbury, in this connection, in a foot-note, takes notice of a whig anti- 
annexation meeting in Worcester, Massachusetts, which adopted a resolution 
"to separate the free States from the others, if annexation prevailed." Ho 
further alluded to the manifesto of Mr. Adams, Mr. Giddings, and others, 
copied on a succeeding page, declaring that annexation "would be identical 
with dissolution of the Union." 

31 



482 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" How little ground exists for such doctrine, even in the opinion of 
the greatest constitutional lawyer of his own party, may be seen by 
looking to 3d Story, pages 160, 161: ' Sec. 1283. The more recent 
acquisition of Florida, which has been universally approved, or acqui- 
esced in by all the States, can be maintained only on the same prin- 
ciple, and furnishes a striking illustration of the truth, that constitu- 
tions of government require a liberal construction to eifect their ob- 
jects ; and that a narrow interpretation of their powers, however it 
may suit the views of speculative philosophers, or the accidental in- 
terests of political parties, is incompatible with the permanent interest 
of the State, and subversive of the great ends of all government, the 
safety and independence of the people.' 

" This construction does not, as the senator from New Jersey argues, 
prevent the blessings of liberty from being enjoyed by the posterity of 
our fathers as they designed. Because there is enough at the boun- 
teous table for all that posterity and any new associates. All such can 
participate with them in that freedom as they do in the air, water, and 
sun, without loss to either, and without exclusiveness and misanthropy. 

"In truth, our whole history serves to illustrate the wisdom, on 
general as well as constitutional principles, of expanding our limits 
with the vast increase of our population and wealth. Such expansion 
prevents many of the evils of too dense a population, and secures the 
predominance of the safe, virtuous and republican pursuit of agricul- 
ture. It is said that we have a Sparta, and let us adorn it. But is 
there never to be an escape from the infant shell? nor any enlarge- 
ment of the shell itself, to suit the growth of the animal within? Is 
our Sparta to be confined forever to a garden spot, or single planta- 
tion? a single city? or a few barren acres, as in Greece, with iron 
only for money, black broth only for food, and our sons tavght stealing 
as an accomplishment — instead of spreading over half a continent, 
improving the sciences and the whole arts of the civilized world, cover- 
ing remotest oceans with our commerce, and helping to spread abroad 
and at home superior education and a purer religion ? Thank God I 
the scales fell from our eyes on this subject more than a quarter of a 
century ago, when Louisiana was purchased ; and instead of trying to 
replace them, if we are able to preserve Oregon — gained both by dis- 
covery and purchase — and to recover Texas, we can, in another half 
century, not only gain, as has been done, double our States, and nearly 
quadruple our wealth, numbers, and power, but adorn, improve, and 
eecure forever all the fair inheritance with which we are blessed. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 483 

" . . But these, and many formal exceptions, seem ^carcely 
suitable to the magnitude of the subject, and the high duties and 
national honor and interests which are at issue. One of the most 
prominent of these interests is the importance of Texas to the United 
States, for security to the commerce of the "West and Southwest, 
through the mouth of the Mississippi river. The freedom of that 
commerce was a topic which, as long ago as under the old confedera- 
tion, agitated the whole country. It then introduced the first geo- 
graphical division of parties between the South and the North, in 
which the latter, unfortunately, was quite as strenuous in resisting 
efforts and sacrifices to obtain that freedom, as it is now in resisting 
those to secure it, after having been obtained. 

" A few circumstances in that age indicate strongly prejudices and 
contests not very unlike the present one. 

" Mr. Gorham, of Massachusetts, ' avowed his opinion that the 
shutting the Mississippi would be advantageous to the Atlantic States, 
and wished to see it shut.' -'' 

" But Virginia extended over Kentucky, and claimed all the North- 
west ; while North Carolina also crossed the Alleghenies into Ten- 
nessee. Hence, the South, at that early day, became the champions 
of western interests, no less than southern ones. 

" And though Mr. Aymer, apparently concurring with Gorham, 
'thought the encouragement of the western country was suicide on 
the part of the old States, f and though the vote of seven States was 
at first procured to proceed in the negotiations with Spain, without 
insisting on the free navigation of the Mississippi,' — yet Mr. Jefiier- 
son wrote that the navigation of the Mississippi we must have. J 
And Mr. Jay at last admitted our right to it was good.§ And the 
old Congress, before breaking up, in September, 1788, solemnly 

" ^Resolved, That the free navigation of the river Mississippi is a 
clear and essential right of the United States, and that the same 
ought to be considered and supported as such.' || 

" In the Convention, while forming the Constitution, Goverueur 
Morris frankly stated that ' the fisheries ' and the ' Mississippi ' se- 
curity to theni. were ' the two great objects of the Union.' ^ 

" The whol^ question, as a national one, was then settled. That 
was the embryo of the present crisis. The duty to secure became 

* Madison Papers, 609. 1 3 Madison Papers, page 1466. 

X 1 Jefferson's Life, page 433. ? 4 Secret Journal, 451. 

U 4 Secret Journal, 453, Sept. 16, 1778. ^i 3 Madison Papers, 1523. 



484 PULPIT POLITICS. 

as imperative as had been the duty to obtain. A million and a half 
of square miles of territory, and what are now nine millions of peo- 
ple on the waters of the Mississippi and her tributaries, were fore- 
seen, and were to be shielded in peace as in war ; and tranquillity to 
their institutions, no less than safety to their property of every 
kind, were, in advance, solemnly guaranteed, and were never to be 
neglected. On this implied pledge your public lands have been sold 

there and settled It is no new vagary, that, when our 

fathers, in 1786, finally resolved on their rights to the free naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi, they, also, in the same act, and by the same 
dauntless spirit, meant to enforce that right till successful, and to 
defend it, also, when once acknowledged, as they afterward did in 
many an Indian war, as well as on the bloody fields of New Or- 
leans. .... 

" The treaty presents, at the same moment, a fortunate occasion to 
do that, as well as to enforce better the guarantees of the Constitu- 
tion to promote ' domestic tranquillity ' in the South and Southwest, 
no less than the West and East. The property and domestic insti- 
tutions of the former, however different from those at the North, were 
secured as amply under the old confederation as those of any other 
region ; so are they by the present Constitution, so are they by all 
our legislative and judicial decisions; and so must they continue to 
be till the compromises of the Constitution are wantonly violated, or 
the Union dissolved. Hence the losses or capture of their property 
in slaves have often been indemnified ; their escape into other States 
has been redressed by a surrender of them ; and the domestic tran- 
quillity designed for all the States, as set out in the preamble of the 
Constitution as one paramount object for its adoption, has again and 
again been sought to be secured, in times of excitement and peril, 
precisely as they are likely to be by the ratification of this treaty. 

. . . The South stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the Rev- 
olution, with this property and these institutions. They came into 
the Union with them on equal terms ; they have so remained for half 
a century, and so must they continue, till injustice or fanaticism 
or treason violate all the sacred compromises of all we hold dear. 

" The annexation has been opposed as not a duty, because inclining 
the balance of political power in our system too much in favor of 
the West and South. But the same course of reasoning would strip 
us of all our great domain on the Pacific Ocean — a country never to 
be surrendered while an American whaler visits its waters, or an 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 485 

American emigrant cliooses to fish, hunt, or plant on the banks of the 
Columbia. . . . It is resisted by many for the reason that slavery 
exists in Texas. That is an institution, to be sure, which most peo- 
ple born at the North are, like myself, averse to. But those who 
respect the Constitution and the Union, remember that it is an insti- 
tution which our parent country, before the llevolution, forced upon 
both the North and South; which, after being more deeply inter- 
woven through the social and political systems of the latter, the rest 
of the States did not hesitate to confederate with her in fighting the 
battles of independence ; nor to counsel with her heroes, patriots, 
and statesmen, in forming the present Constitution, nor to associate 
with them in carrying out its great destinies ; nor in guaranteeing 
their property and rights in common with the rest, then and during 
the half century since, in peace and war, and in weal or wo." * 

REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING DISCUSSIONS. 

(1) Mr. Slade frankly avowed the principle lying at the foun- 
dation of the political agitation of slavery, to which allusion has 
been made in the introductory remarks to the present section. 
He said: "One of the objections he had heard strongly insisted 
on, was that abolition had a tendency to disturb the balance of 
the Constitution. He contended that the balance was disturbed 
on the other side by the gradual increase of slavery. It would 
not be long before the representation of the slaveholding States 
would far outweigh the proportions settled under the Constitu- 
tion This fact, he contended, would show that the 

progress of abolition was necessary to preserve the balance of the 
Constitution, or rather to restore it, for it had been already dis- 
turbed by the purchase of Louisiana." 

The great object of politicians and statesmen, in all their move- 
ments, is to protect themselves and constituents against the in- 
crease of any element that may control, adversely to their inter- 
ests, the legislation of the country. The New England people 
could only prosper as manufacturers, and required a tariff on for- 
eign imports that would afford them protection. The South could 
only flourish as a planting region, and demanded free trade, so that 

* Appendix to Congressional Globe, June, 1844, page 760, etc. 



486 PULPIT POLITICS. 

its productions miglit enter freely into the ports of all foreign 
nations. This placed New England and the South in a position 
of antagonism. The acquisition of Louisiana had unsettled the 
balances previously existing between the North and South, and 
given a preponderance to the planting States. The Louisiana 
territory had been subdivided into three States, instead of one, 
Avheu Mr. Slade sounded the alarm as to the danger of acquiring 
additional territory by the admission of Texas. Mr. Slade, there- 
fore, believed that " to preserve the balance of the Constitution, 
or rather to restore it," the successful prosecution of the abolition 
enterprise had become necessary. And why ? The West, in its 
rapid growth, now held the balance of power. The South had shown 
it more favors than the East, and needed its support against the 
adverse action of eastern statesmen. While in the colonial con- 
dition, the South had enjoyed a free commercial intercourse with 
the British possessions, carrying its own products in its own ves- 
sels, and thus keeping in advance of the East in the extent of its 
foreign trade. The treaty of Mr. Jay with Great Britain, which 
came up for discussion in the Congress of 1795 and 1796, by its 
12th Article, not only limited the size of American vessels, trad- 
ing with the West Indies, to seventy tons and under, but gave 
up the carriage, in our own shipping, of cotton, sugar, indigo, and 
coffee.* The whole carrying trade of American cotton being 
thus placed in the hands of Great Britain, she could forbid all 
shipments of that article in her own vessels, and thus prevent 
American cotton from being exported to England.f Subse- 
quently, Mr. Gorham, of Massachusetts, with others, had opposed 
the opening of the navigation of the Mississippi to the West, as 
an act suicidal to the Atlantic States. But the obnoxious feature 
of Jay's treaty was not confirmed; and, through the influence of 
Mr. Jefferson, the Mississippi question was settled favorably to 
the West and South ; | and by this means these two sections 
became intimately united in a bond cemented by their mutual 
interests. 

* Benton's Abridgement of Debates in Congress, page 709. 
tKeferences elsewhere show that we had then only sent out our first exports, 
whereas the West Indies were then exporting largely. 
I See Mr. Woodbury's speech, quoted in this section. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS— IN CONGRESS. 487 

This result was tlie necessary consequence of the peculiar posi- 
tion occupied by the West, in her then infantile condition. In the 
absence of efficient means of transportation to the East, the West 
had long been dependent upon the Mississippi for the disposal of 
its surplus products, excepting the live stock, which could travel 
on foot to an eastern market. By this means the West found its 
interests identified with the South, and felt inclined to act with 
it in political measures. To interrupt this growing harmony, 
and dissever the West from the South, was long the policy of 
the East. The " American System," which was to create a home 
market, by the increase of manufactures, for the agricultural 
products of the North at large, had not received the universal 
acceptance of the people, as had been anticipated. To fail in 
controlling the vote of the West, was to leave the South in the 
possession of the National legislation, and to place the East in a 
position of great uncertainty us to the congressional protection 
it could secure for its manufactures. The physical obstacles 
forbidding the products of the West from being transported East 
seemed insurmountable ; the only hope of success, therefore, in 
binding these two distant sections together, lay in the use of 
•moral means. The opportunity of applying this remedy was at 
hand. The Churches at the North had been busied for many 
years in creating an anti-slavery sentiment among the people ; 
and as a similar movement in Great Britain had secured West 
India emancipation, it was believed that equal success might 
attend the abolition movement in this country. But let that 
result as it might, the " progress of abolition," according to Mr. 
Slade, would tend " to preserve the balance of the Constitution." 
And how ? If abolition should be successful in efi'ecting emanci- 
pation, then the South would be prostrated at the feet of New- 
England, and could no longer extend its cultivation westward; 
but, failing in this, the East, by means of the hatred of slavery 
that could be engendered at the West, would at least array tlie 
people of that section against the South, and thus put a check 
upon the progress of free trade legislation. Thus, in either case. 
New England would be the gainer, as she could then control the 
action of Congress. ' 



488 PULPIT POLITICS. 

But these two purposes were not the only measures contem- 
plated by New England men, to secure to themselves the sectional 
advantages they wished to possess. A dissolution of the Union, 
as a last resort, was relied upon as a certain means of aggran- 
disement to their portion of the country. 

This idea of " dissolution " was of early birth in New England. 
It broke forth from the classic lips of Mr. Ouincy, of Boston, as 
early as 1811, in the Congress of the United States, when the 
admission of Louisiana was pending. His language, as will be 
seen by a reference to Mr. Woodbury's remarks, was clear and 
unequivocal, that its admission would virtually be a dissolution 
of the Union, as it would free the northern States from their 
moral obligations, and justify them in separating from the South, 
even by force, if necessary. 

The right of secession was not held by Mr. Quincy alone. As 
early as 1839, Mr. J. Q. Adams, in an address before the New 
York Historical Society, gave the following deliberate opinion, 
not in the heat of debate, but as formed in the quiet of his study 
at home : 

•' Nations acknowledge no judge between them upon earth, and their 
Govevuments, from necessity, must, in their intercourse with each other, 
decide when the failure of one party to a contract to perform its obli- 
gations absolves the other from the reciprocal fulfillment of his own. 
But this last of earthly powers is not necessary to the freedom or 
independence of States connected together by the immediate action 
of the people of whom they consist. To the people alone is there 
reserved, as well the dissolving as the constituent power, and that 
power can be exercised by them only under the tie of conscience, bind- 
ing them to the retributive justice of heaven. 

" With these qualifications, we may admit the same right as vested 
in the people of every State in the Union, with reference to the Gen- 
eral Government, which was exercised by the people of the United 
Colonies with reference to the supreme head of the British Empire, 
of which they formed a part ; and, under these limitations, have the 
people of each State in the Union a right to secede from the confederated 
Union itself. 

" Thus stands the right. But the indissoluble link of union be- 
tween the people of the several States of this confederated nation is, 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 489 

afttr all, not in the rigid, but in the heart. If the day should ever 
come (may heaven avert it) when the affections of the people of these 
States shall be alienated from each other; when the fraternal spirit 
shall give way to cold indifference, or collisions of interest shall fester 
into hatred, the bands of political association will not long hold to- 
gether parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated 
interests and kindly sympathies ; and far better will it be for the peo- 
ple of the disunited States to part in friendship from each other, than 
to be held together by constraint. Then will be the time for reverting 
to the precedent, which occurred at the formation and adoption of the 
Constitution, to form again a more perfect Union, by dissolving that 
which could no longer bind, and to leave the separated parts to be re- 
united by the law of political gravitation, to the center." * 

But Mr. Adams -was not without illustrious authority to sus- 
tain him in his opinion in relation to the right of secession on 
the part of States. The Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, so 
familiar to public men, having been received unfavorably by many 
of the other States, were referred to Mr. Madison for further con- 
sideration and defense. In reporting upon them, he said : 

" It appeal's to your committee to be a plain principle, founded in 
common sense, illustrated by common practice, and essential to the 
nature of compacts, that, where resort can be had to no tribunal 
superior to the authority of the parties, the parties themselves must be 
the rightful judges, in the last resort, whether the bargain made has been 
pursued or violated. The Constitution of the United States was formed 
by the sanction of the States, given by each in its sovereign capacity. 
It adds to the stability and dignity, as well as to the authority, of the 
Constitution, that it rests on this legitimate and solid foundation. The 
States, then, being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in 
their sovereign capacity, it follows, of necessity, that there can be no 
tribunal above their authority, to decide, in the last resort, whether 
the compact made by them be violated, and consequently, that, as the 
parties to it, they must themselves decide, in the last resort, such questions 
as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition." . . . 

" The resolution has, accordingly, guarded against any misapprehen- 
sion of its object, by expressly requiring, for such an interposition, 
' the case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous breach of the Con- 

* Quoted in the speech of Mr. Benjamin, in U. S. Senate, Dec. 31, 1860. 



490 PULPIT POLITICS. 

stitution, by the exercise of powers not granted by it.' It must be a 
case not of a light and transient nature, but of a nature dangerous to 
the great purposes for which the Constitution was established." 

These threats of secession, and these claims of a constitutional 
right in a State to secede, coming, as they did, in the first instance, 
from Northern statesmen, were well calculated, when taken in 
connection with the hostility existing in the East to the doctrines 
of free trade, to lead the South to the conclusion that a peaceful 
separation of the States might be effected, or rather, that it was 
really desired by the North. The Eastern representative men 
had so often advocated this right of secession, and its necessity, 
under certain contingencies, that, we have little doubt, the South, 
in its recent movements, anticipated no trouble in effecting a dis- 
solution of the Union. Indeed, up to a very recent date, the 
right of secession by a State, or States, seems to have been held 
by prominent men on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. 

But this doctrine, often as it has been advocated, never re- 
ceived the assent of the people at large. It was the imputation 
of secession principles that secured the political damnation of 
Mr. Webster ;* and that will now damn every politician that has 
avowed the sentiment. The question is not whether, in a strict 
construction of the Constitution, the right of secession may not 
exist ; but the fact is, that the people, almost en masse, cannot be 
brought to contemplate favorably, even for a moment, the idea 
that the glorious Union, secured by the bravery and the blood of 
their fathers, shall ever be destroyed. 

(2) Mr. Mann spoke the common sentiment of the North, at 
large, when he pledged himself and his constituents to the fulfill- 
ment of all the compromises of the Constitution. Mr. Calhoun 
and Mr. Preston, though making a strong statement of the alarm 
produced by the abolitionists at the South, did not present an 
exaggerated picture of the state of public feeling, in their section 

® Mr. "Webster was charged with having acted as a secretary of the Hartford 
Convention, and for this reason, perhaps, more than all others, his friends were 
always unable to secure for him the nomination to the Presidency. It was 
constantly urged, as a reason against him, that he could not succeed before the 
people, because of his connection with that band of supposed traitors to the Union. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 491 

of the Union, at that moment. The wholesale butchery attend- 
ing emancipation in St, Domingo was then fresh in the recollec- 
tions of the people ; and the blood that was shed in the Virginia 
negro insurrection was scarcely yet dry upon her soil. Under 
such circumstances, none but fanatics, imbued with the rancorous 
spirit of demons, would have persevered in their attempts to fill 
the South with incendiary documents. Mr. Buchanan, in present- 
ing the decision of Congress, of 1790, denying any power over 
slavery by the national legislature, showed conclusively, that the 
abolitionists, by interfering with slavery in the South, were acting 
in open violation of the compromises of the Constitution, as inter- 
preted by those who framed it. To suppress the circulation of 
the incendiary publications of the abolitionists was no more an 
interference with the rights of the citizen under the administra- 
tion of General Jackson, than the prohibition of the circulation 
of secession documents is unconstitutional under that of Mr. 
Lincoln. Mr. Benton, in characterizing as diabolical the docu- 
ments put in circulation by the abolitionists, made no unjustifiable 
charge against their authors. His notice of the causes that led 
to the San Domingo massacre, will serve a good purpose, as cast- 
ing some new light upon that horrible tragedy. 

(3) The appeal of Mr. Grundy to the people of tlie North, to 
arrest the progress of abolitionism, before its bitter fruits should 
come to maturity, was a reasonable request. But there was no 
legal means at the command of conservative men, by which they 
could interpose, directly, in the suppression of that movement. 
One thing only could have been done : the friends of the Union 
should have risen in their might, and protested against the doc- 
trines and practices of the abolitionists. They should have spoken 
out, in thunder tones, the true sentiments of their hearts on the 
question of their constitutional obligations. But instead of adopt- 
ing this course, they quietly suffered the fanatical abolitionists to 
assume a dictatorial position, both in religion and politics, until, 
emboldened by non-resistance, they imagined the field was won, 
and they were conquerors. 

It was the great error of the conservative men at the North, 
that they allowed the enemies of the Constitution to give tone to 



492 PULPIT POLITICS. 

public sentiment abroad, so as to create the impression that the 
free States had become thoroughly abolitionized. They are now 
paying the penalty of their remissness in duty ; and ^Yhcn they 
succeed in restoring the Union, then wo to the fanatic, in future, 
who shall again dare to plot its overthrow. 

Mr. PiNCKNEY presents such facts as prove conclusively that 
the abolitionists were vastly in the minority, at the date of these 
discussions. But 34,000 persons out of 8,000,000 of population 
had attached their names to the abolition petitions, Mr. Pinckney 
was also right in another point. If the South had left the ques- 
tion of the suppression of abolition with the citizens of the North, 
it would never have attained the gigantic proportions it afterward 
assumed. But instead of leaving the matter to the North, every 
few months presented some new case of injury inflicted upon 
Northern citizens at the South, on account of their supposed 
abolition sentiments and designs. This, whether a deserved 
punishment or not, served as fresh fuel for the agitators at the 
North to feed their expiring fires ; and had it not been for this, 
the abolitionists could never have maintained their ground. But 
there were conservative men at the South who disapproved of the 
mob violence used against Northern citizens ; and so largely were 
they in the majority, that if they had used their influence, they 
could have prevented the scenes that occurred.'^ The conserva- 
tive men of the South, therefore, were as much to blame as those 
of the North ; nay, they were more to blame, because, had it not 
been for the cases of violence there, Ave could have acted with 
greater efficiency here. They tied our hands, and then com- 
plained of us for not fighting their battles. 

* The case of the agents for the sale of " Cotton is King," at Enterprise, 
Mississippi, early in the year 1860, is one in point. The two young men were 
arrested, stripped of their clothing, and the tar and cotton standing ready to be 
applied, w^hile eighty copies of the work were being burned as an abolition in- 
cendiary publication. The conservative men had sufficient courage to inter- 
pose, and by placing the agents in prison, under the plea of further investiga- 
tion, thus rescued them from the mob. After eight weeks' imprisonment, they 
were tried, acquitted, and discharged — it having been determined that the object 
of the work was to demonstrate the absolute necessity of preserving the Union, 
as essential to the prosperity and happiness of both sections, and not designed 
to promote abolition and disunion. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 403 

(4) The charge made by Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, that there 
existed a deliberate design, on the part of Northern men, to effect 
a dissolution of the Union, will startle some of our readers on 
account of its boldness. That such designs existed somewhere, 
no one can now doubt. But of the section of the Union in which 
they originated, few perhaps entertained a correct opinion ; the 
facts now drawn out, therefore, must greatly interest the public, 
and will serve to disabuse the minds of many, in relation to the 
views they may have entertained heretofore. The opinion of the 
elder Adams, in 1803 — based upon the Louisiana question, then 
agitated — " that he saw no possibility of continuing the Union 
of the States, and that their dissolution must necessarily take 
place," is referred to by Mr. Johnson only as a starting point 
from which to date the opposition of New England to the Union 
of the States, and their hostility to the institutions of the South. 
This hostility he found manifesting itself in the Hartford Conven- 
tion, in the Halls of Congress, by the presentation of abolition 
petitions, and in the speeches of Mr, J. Q. Adams, in which he, 
(Mr. Adams,) not only announced his belief that the refusal to 
receive the abolition petitions would absolve the North from all 
obligations to the South, but, in case of war, the treaty-making 
power could declare emancipation. 

This power to abolish slavery, in time of war, seems never to 
have been lost sight of by the abolitionists ; and could they but 
bring on a collision of arms, either civil or servile, their mission 
would be accomplished. Reader, keep this in mind, and turn 
back to the quotations from the speeches of Mr. Giddings, which 
follow those of Mr. Johnson. While admitting that, under the 
Constitution, the North has no right to interfere with slavery, 
Mr. Giddings seems to dwell with evident satisfaction upon the 
fact that, in time of war, slavery could be swept away, as chaff 
before the wind, in defiance of the Constitution. But he goes 
further, and insists upon emancipation, by Congress, in the Dis- 
trict, notwithstanding that to have a community of free negroes 
in such a central point as Washington might endanger the safety 
of slavery in the adjoining States. Nay, more, he urged eman- 
cipation in the District for that very reason ; thus justifying the 



494 PULPIT POLITICS. 

accomplishment of an object by indirect means, which can not be 
done constitutionally by direct means. 

Again, in discussing the question of the annexation of Texas, 
Mr. Giddings denounces the project as nefarious, because it would 
" place the balance of political power in the hands of foreign slave- 
holders," and " transfer the descendants of our New England pil- 
grims to the political control of Texans and foreigners." Here 
we have a repetition of the fears entertained by Mr. Slade, that 
the balance of the Constitution would settle down to the injury 
of the people of New England, and the measures that would ef- 
fect this, Mr. Griddings pronounces treason. And why? "The 
protective policy of New England," says he, " can never be recon- 
ciled to the free-trade principles of Texas," and, therefore, " the 
act of uniting with Texas would itself be the dissolution " of the 
Union — would he treason to New England. That is to say, if New 
England could not have a protective tariff, in consequence of the 
extension of slavery, she would dissolve the Union. 

But Mr. Giddings goes farther, and expresses his willingness 
that the President and his Cabinet, as well as our southern sister 
States, who were desirous of doing so, might leave this Union to 
form a new compact with Texas ; and he would bid them God 
speed. 

These views of Mr. Giddings fall in with the general opinions 
entertained by New England politicians at that day. During 
the preceding Session of Congress, March 3, 1843, a manifesto 
against the annexation of Texas was issued by the members 
whose names appear below, Mr. Giddings being one of the num- 
ber. A few extracts will show its true character, and the objects 
aimed at by its signers. In speaking of the annexation of Texas, 
they say : 

" That a large portion of the country interested in the continuance 
of domestic slavery and the slave trade in these United States, have 
solemnly and unalterably determined that it shall he speedily carried 
into execution, and that by this admission of a new slave Territory and 
slave States, the undue ascendency of the slaveholding 'power in the Gov- 
ernment shall he secured and riveted heyond redemption. . . . The 
same references will show, very conclusively, that the particidar ohjects 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 495 

of this new acquisition of slave territory were the perpetuation of slav- 
ery and the continued ascendency of the slave power. . . . None 
can be so blind now as not to know tliat the real design and object of 
the South is to ' add new weight to her end of the lever.' . . 
We hold that there is not only 'no political necessity' for it, 'no ad- 
vantages to be derived from it,' but that there is no constitutional 
power delegated to any department of the National Government to au- 
thorize it : that no act of Congress or treaty for annexation can impose 
the least obligation upon the several States of this Union to submit to 
such an unwarrantable act, or to receive into their family and frater- 
nity such misbegotten and illegitimate progeny. We hesitate not to 
say that annexation, effected by any act or proceeding of the Federal 
Government, or any of its departments, would be identical with 
DISSOLUTION. It would be a violation of our national compact, its ob- 
jects, designs, and the great elementary principles which entered into 
its formation of a character so deep and fundamental, and would be 
an attempt to eternize an institution and a power of nature so uqjust 
in themselves, so injurious to the interests, and abhorrent to the feel- 
ings of the people of the free States as, in our opinion, not only inev- 
itably to result in a dissolution of the Union, BUT FULLY TO JUS- 
TIFY IT ; and we not only assert that the people of the free States 
' ought not to submit to it ;' but we say, with confidence, they would 

NOT SUBMIT TO IT."'i^ 

This was signed by the following abolition members of Congress : 

John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel B. Borden, 

Seth M. Gates, Thomas C. Chittenden, 

Wm. Slade, John Mattocks, 

Wm. B. Calhoun, Christopher Morgan, 

Joshua K. Giddings, Joshua M. Howard, 

Sherlock J. Andrews, Victory Birdseye. 

Reader, what think you of this, when taken in connection with 
all the preceding declarations of Northern men which have been 
quoted? Were there treasonable designs toward the Constitution 
here? 

But we have said that the abolition controversy, in the hands 
of the few who aimed at controlling national events, was used as 

» See Niles' Eegi.-ttT, May 13, 1843, pp. 174, 175. 



496 PULPIT POLITICS. 

an element for the promotion of sectional interests. This "svas 
true of the South as well as of the East. After -syhat has been 
presented in demonstration of the truth that it has been used for 
this purpose at the East, let us turn a moment to the South, and 
here we shall not multiply testimony, as no one doubts that the 
struggle of the southern States has been maintained to secure 
the balance of power in their own favor, that they might, under 
the guarantees of the Constitution, be able to protect their prop- 
erty in slaves. 

Mr. "Wise, in his speech on the Texas question, January 26, 
1842, sums up the Southern view of the subject thus briefly : 

'• True, if Iowa be added on the one side. Florida will be added on 
the other. But there the equation must stop. Let one more north- 
ern State be admitted, and the equilibrium is gone — gone forever. 
The balance of interests is gone — the safe-guard of American prop- 
erty — of the American Constitution — of the American Union, van- 
ished into thin air. This must be the inevitable result, unless, bt/ a 
treaty with Mexico, the South can add more weight to her end op 
THE lever ! Let the South stop at the Sabine, (the eastern boundary 
of Texas,) while the Xorth may spread unchecked beyond the Rocky 
Mountains, and the Southern scale must kick the beam.''^ 

2s othing can be clearer to the comprehension of intelligent men 
than that the war waged by New England against the South has 
been prosecuted for the purpose of sustaining her own sectional 
interests, and that the crusade against slavery has been only a 
secondary c&nsideration, and employed as a means of accomplish- 
ing the real object in view. On the other hand, it is equally plain, 
that the South have resisted the aggressions of the North from 
motives of a similar nature. Both have been influenced by sec- 
tional interests ; both have equally struggled to maintain the bal- 
ance of power in their own hands. The North began the warfare, 
and the South accepted the challenge. The West, springing into 
existence Avith giant strength, was inclined to fight upon the side 
of her foster-mother, the South. Abolition came, with its foetid 

* Nilos" Register, May 13, 1843, p. 174, where it is quoted in the manifesto 
of Mr. Adams and his associates. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 497 

breath, to poison the atmosphere, and, under the influence of the 
temporary delirium produced, to array her on the side of the 
East. The question at issue, substantially, was, whether New 
England should multiply her spindles, or the South extend its 
slavery ; and, as involved in the issue, whether the West should 
have a broadly extending market for its products, by the exten- 
sion of cotton culture in the southwest, or be shut up to the 
meager demand created by the parsimonious stomachs of New 
England. The opposition to the admission of Texas, if success- 
ful, would limit slavery to the States where it already existed. 
The natural increase of the slave population, under these cir- 
cumstances, would soon be such as to render their labor unpro- 
ductive to the planter, in consequence of their over-crowded con- 
dition ; and his inability to make money from their labor would 
compel him to emancipate them, and thus the natural market for 
the products of the western farmer be ruined forever. That the 
West took this view of the question of securing Texas to the 
Union, is amply demonstrated by the eagerness with which her 
sons rushed to its rescue when Mexico threatened its subju- 
gation. 

The Legislature of Mississippi, during the agitation of the 
question of annexing Texas, gave an expression of opinion which 
may be taken as representing that of the South generally. It 
said : 

"But we hasten to suggest the imporiancc of the annexation of 
Texas to this Kepublic on grounds somewhat local in their complex- 
ion, but of an import infinitely grave and interesting to the people 
who inhabit the southern portion of this confederacy, where it is known 
that a species of domestic slavery is tolerated and protected by law, 
whose existence is prohibited by the legal regulations of other States 
of this confederacy ; which system of slavery is held by all who are 
familiarly acquainted with its practical effects, to he of highly hcncficial 
influence to the country within whose limits it is permitted to exist. 

" The committee feel authorized to say, that this system is cherished 
by our constituents as the very palladium of their prosperity and hap- 
piness ; and, whatever ignorant fimatics may elsewhere conjecture, the 
committee are fully assured, upon the most diligent observation and 
reflection on the subject, that the South does not possess icithiii her lim- 
32 



498 PULPIT POLITICS. 

its a blessing loith which the affections of her people are so closely en- 
twined^ and so completely enjihered, and whose value is more highly 
appreciated than that which we are now considering. . . . 

" The northern States have no interests of their oivn which require 
any special safeguards for their defense, save only their domestic 
manufactures ; and God knows they have already received protection 
from Government on a most liberal scale ; under which encouragement 
they have improved and flourished beyond example. The South has 
very peculiar interests to preserve— interests already violently assailed 
and boldly threatened. 

" Your committee are fully persuaded that this protection to her hest 
interest will he afforded by the annexation of Texas; an equipoise of 
influence in the halls of Congress will be secured^ which will furnish 
us a permanent guarantee of protection.^'' ^-^ 

It will be observed here, that the action of the South w'as 
not so much influenced by hostility to the tariff policy of New 
England, as it was by the existing necessity of protecting itself 
against the interference of the fanatics of the North Avith the 
institution of slavery. That there was extreme danger, every 
Southern man fully believed ; and how could that belief be other- 
wise, when, as early as March, 1854, such language as the fol- 
lowing was uttered on the floor of Congress ? Mr. Giddings said : 

" Sir, I would intimidate no one ; but I tell you there is a spirit at 
the North which will set at defiance all the low and unworthy machi- 
nations of this Executive, and of the minions of its power. When the 
contest shall come, when the thunder shall roll, and the lightning 
flash ; when the slaves shall rise in the South ; when, in imitation of 
the Cuban bondmen, the Southern slaves of the South shall feel that 
they are men ; when they feel the stirring emotions of immortality, 
and recognize the stirring truth that they are men, and entitled to the 
rights which God has bestowed upon them ; when the slaves shall feel 
that, and when the masters shall turn pale and tremble ; when their 
dwellings shall smoke, and dismay sit on each countenance, then, sir 
i do not say, ' We will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your 
fear cometh ; ' but I do say, when that time shall come, the lovers of 
our race will stand forth and exert the legitimate powers of this 

* Niles' Register, May 13, 1843, as quoted in manifesto of Messrs. Adams, 
Giddings, etc., pages 173, 174. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — IN CONGRESS. 499 

Government for freedom. We shall then have constitutional power 
to act for the good of our country, and do justice to the slave. 

" Then we will strike off the shackles from the limbs of the slaves. 
That will be a period when this Government will have power to act 
between slavery and freedom, and when it can make peace by giving 
freedom to the slaves. And let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, that the 
time hastens. It is rolling forward. The President is exerting a 
power that will hasten it, though not intended by him. I hail it as I 
do the approaching dawn of that political and moral millennium which 
I am well assured will come upon the world." * 

We shall not pursue this subject farther than to make one 
more quotation, which, when taken in connection with what is 
said and quoted in the preceding pages, will throw a flood of light 
upon the schemes of the New England agitators. The Neiv Yorh 
Anti-slavery Standard, June 21, 1856, made the following revela- 
tion as to the office performed by tlie abolitionists, and the designs 
they had in view : 

" The Whig party, five years ago in power, and with a reasonable 
prospect of maintaining it, now dispersed, is demolished to powder. 
. . . . The abolitionists saw that this must come to pass ; but they 

did not dream of its accomplishing itself so soon That 

the national parties should, sooner or later, divide on the only real 

matter of dispute existing in the country, was inevitable 

But the lines are now drawn, and the hosts are encamped over against 
each other. The attempt to keep up a delusive alliance with natural 
enemies has been abandoned. 

" The abolitionists have been telling these things in the ears of the 
people for a quarter of a century. They have had a doxihle i^art in 
what has come to pass, both hi/ preparing the minds of the people of tlie 
North, and hy compelling the people of the South to the very atrocities 
which have startled the North info attention.^ Nothing but the mad- 
ness which ushers in destruction, and the pride which goes before a 
fall, on the part of the slaveholders, could have roused the sluggish 
North from its comfortable dreams of wealth, and made it put itself 

even into a posture of resistance It is long since this 

paper took the ground that the first thing, though by no means the 

« Political Text-Book, p. 23. 

t The sentence we have italicised is an important declaration. 



500 PULPIT Pi.^LITICS. 

only thing needful; was the formation of sectional parties — of parties 
distinctly Northern and Southern, and. of necessity, slavery and anti- 
slavery. We rejoice that our eyes behold the day of that beginning 
of the end.' * 

Here we have a choice revelation ! The omce-holiiing aboli- 
tionists had declared that a servile or civil war, or both combined, 
would afford them an opportunity for abolishing slavery, irrespect- 
ive of constitutional obligations to the contrary ; and had rejoiced 
at the thought that they could see the wished-for day approach- 
ing. On this ground they had taken their stand, and were only 
awaiting the sounding of the war-trumpet to hasten to the execu- 
tion of their purpose. On the other hand, the abolition editors, 
clergymen, and civilians, after having educated the North up to 
this point, a& they supposed, were perseveringly engaged in 
attempting, first, to promote servile insurrections among the 
slaves, and, second, in provoking the people of the South to the 
perpetration of the atrocities which would excite the North to 
resistance, and thus bring on the terrible collision of arms which 
would usher in the moral millennium of Mr. Giddings I A slave 
insurrection, or a rebellion, would equally promote their abolition 
schemes. Was not Mr. Johnson right in charging that there was 
a deliberate design, on the part of the abolitionists of the North, 
to dissolve the Union? We have it here confessed; and the 
scheme was to goad on the South to acts of resistance against 
the aggressions of the abolitionists, and then, when the collision 
came, and they had a sectional Executive, the abolition of slavery 
could be effected by a single dash of his pen. They have suc- 
ceeded in the first, but, thank God, they have failed in the last. 

But we shall pass on. and before completing our remarks on 
this topic, we must present the views of numerous individuals, 
80 as to show the wide spread disaffection to the Union which 
prevailed at the North, and contributed so efficiently to the pro- 
duction of our present national calamities. 

» Political Text-Book. p. 18. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 501 

Section III. — Opinions of Individuals, etc., relating to 
THE Subject of Slavery, as illustrating the Abolition 
Movement. 

As before stated, we are not preparing a connected history of 
the abolition movement, but presenting such facts as will serve to 
illustrate its character and objects. In addition to the produc- 
tions of the political abolitionists, and the debates in Congress, we 
now turn to such of the leading incidents and opinions of indi- 
viduals, or public assemblies connected with this fanatical cru- 
sade, as may best serve still further to illustrate its inner life. 

At the opening of Pennsylvania Hall, Philadelphia, in 1888, a 
leading abolition lady, who had been recently married, and whose 
bridal attendants were composed of one half whites, and the other 
half blacks, offered the following resolutions, which were adopted : 

'■'■Resolved^ That the prejudice against color is the very spirit of 
slavery, sinful in those who indulge it ; and is the fire which is con- 
suming the happiness and energies of the free people of color. 

" That it is, therefore, the duty of the abolitionists to identify them- 
selves with the oppressed Americans, by sitting with them in places 
of worship, by appearing with them in our streets, by giving them our 
countenance in steamboats and stages, by visiting them at their homes, 
and encouraging them to visit us, receiving them as we do our white 
fellow-citizens."* (1) 

Among the letters received by the committee having charge of 
the proceedings connected with the opening of the Hall above 
referred to, is one from Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, 
dated May 5, 1838, which reads as follows : 

" Gentlemen: — I have delayed answering yours until this time, that 
I might be able to decide with certainty whether I could comply with 
your invitation to be present at the opening of the Pennsylvania Hall 
for the free discussion of liberty and equality of civil rights, and the 
evil of slavery. 

" I regret that I can not be with you on that occasion. T know 
no spectacle which it would give me greater pleasure to witness, than 

* "Washington Globe, Extra, Sept., 1840, p. 203, 



502 PULPIT POLITICS. 

a dedication of a temple of liberty. Your objects should meet with 
the approbation of every free man. It will meet the approbation of 
every man who respects the rights of others as much as he loves his 
own. Interest, fashion, false religion, and tyranny may triumph for a 
while, and rob a man of his inalienable rights ; but the people can not 
always be deceived, and will not always be oppressed. "^= 

The Legislature of Ohio, during its session of 1840, passed a 
resolution, two only voting in the negative, that slavery is an in- 
stitution recognized by the Constitution ; and another, declaring 
that " the unlawful, unwise, and unconstitutional interference of 
the fanatical abolitionists of the North with the domestic institu- 
tions of the southern States was highly criminal." f That was 
then the sentiment of Ohio, and is still its sentiment, if fairly 
expressed. 

On the 25th of February, 1850, Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, pre- 
sented two petitions from citizens of Delaware and Pennsylvania, 
praying Congress, w^ithout delay, to devise and propose " some 
plan for the immediate, peaceful dissolution of the Union." 

Mr. Webster suggested that there should have been a pream- 
ble to the petition in these Avords : — 

"Grentlemen, members of Congress: — IMiei-eas, at the commence- 
ment of the session you, and each of you, took your solemn oaths, 
in the presence of God and the holy evangelists, that you would sup- 
port the Constitution of the United States, now, therefore, we pray 
you to take immediate steps to break up the Union, and overthrow 
the Constitution of the United States as soon as you can. And, aa 
in duty bound, we will ever pray." 

On January 16, 1855, Rev. H. "W. Beecher, in a lecture, in 
New York, on the subject of cutting the North from the South, 
said : 

"All attempts at evasion, at adjourning, at concealing, and compro- 
mising, are in vain. The reason of our long agitation is not, that 
ministers will meddle with improper themes, that parties are disre- 
gardful of their country's interest. These are symptoms only, not 
the disease ; the effects, not the causes. 

» Washington Globe, Extra, October, 1840, p. 315. 
t Niles' Kegister, February 8, 18 40. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 503 

" Two great powers, that will not live together, arc in our midst, 
and tugging at each other's throats. They will search each other 
out, though you separate them a hundred times. And if by an in- 
sane blindness you shall contrive to put off the issue, and send this 
unsettled dispute down to your children, it will go down, gathering 
volume and strength at every step, to waste and desolate their herit- 
age. Let it be settled now. Clear the place. Bring in the cham- 
pions. Let them put their lances in rest for the charge. Sound the 
trumpet, and God save the right l"-!^ 

At a public meeting held in his church, to promote emigra- 
tion to Kansas, the Rev. H. W. Beecber made the following re- 
marks, as reported in the iV. Y. Evening Post : 

" He believed that the Sharp rifle was truly moral agency, and 
there was more moral power in one of those instruments, so far as 
the slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a hundred Bibles. 
You might just as well," said he, " read the Bible to buffaloes, as to 
those fellows who follow Atchiuson and Stringfellow ; but they have 
a supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifles. 
The Bible is addressed to the conscience ; but when you address it to 
them it has no effect — there is no conscience there. Though he was 
a peace man, he had the greatest regard for Sharp's rifles, and for that 
pluck that induced those New England men to use them."f (2) 

Simeon Brown, Esq., of Massachusetts, the Free Soil candidate 
for Lieutenant-Governor, gave a statement, while canvassing the 
State, of the political objects in view by his party, as follows : 

"The object to be accomplished is this: That the free States shall 
take possession of the Government by their united votes. Minor in- 
terests, and old party affiliations and prejudices must be forgotten. 
We have the power in number; our strength is in union. "| 

Mr. BuRLiNGAME, in one of his speeches, said : 

"If asked to state specially what he would do, ho would answer: 
. . . He would have judges who believe in a higher law, and an 
anti-slavery Constitution, and an anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slav- 
ery God ! Having thus denationalized slavery, he would not menace 
it in the States where it exists ; but would say to the States, it is your 

* Political Text-Book, p. 19. t Ibid., p. 20. J Ibid. 



504 PULPIT POLITICS. 

local institution — hug it to your bosom until it destroys you. You 
must let our freedom alone. [Applause.] If you but touch the hem 
of the garment of freedom, we will trample you to the earth. [Loud 
applause.] ... In conclusion, he expressed the hope that soon 
the time might come when the sun would not rise on a master, nor 
set on a slave." * 

E.ev. Andreay Foss, of New Hampshire, at the American Anti- 
slavery Society meeting at New York, May, 1857, said : 

" If the an^el Gabriel had done what their fathers did, he would 
be a scoundrel for it. Their fathers placed within the Constitution a 
provision for the rendition of fugitive slaves, and therein did a wicked 
thing. . . . Where slavery and freedom are put in the one nation, 
there must be a fight — there must be an explosion, just as if fire and 
powder were brought together. There never was an hour when this 
blasphemous and infamous government should be made, and now the 
hour was to be prayed for when that disgrace to humanity should be 
dashed to pieces forever." f 

Rev. B. 0. Frothingham, of New Jersey, at the American 
Anti-slavery Society meeting. New York, May, 1857, said : 

" They demanded justice for the slave at any price — of Constitu- 
tion, of Union, of country. This was the principle of the anti-slavery 
association. It was it which urged their next demand — the immediate 
emancipation of the slave — for the same reason as they would demand 
of a person pursuing a vicious course of drunkenness, gambling, or 
debauchery, that he should desist from it at once, at any co.st of phys- 
ical pain. Immediate emancipation presented no financial or political 
difficulty. He believed that this Union effectually prevented them 
from advancing in the least degree the work of the slave's redemp- 
tion The Northern people were beginning to see that the 

South was divided from them by its system of labor and by its ideas 
of human rights. They wanted to make that gulf of division deeper. 
. . . . As to the word ' Union,' they all knew it was but a politi- 
cal catch-word." J 

The Hon. Horace Maxn,§ while representing Massachusetts 
in the 31st Congress, said : 

* Political Text-Book, p. 20. t Ibid. J Ibid., p. 21. 

2 Late of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS BY INDIVIDUALS. 505 

" In conclusion, I have only to add, that such is my solemn and abid 
ing conviction of the character of slavery, that, under a full sense of 
my responsibility to my country and my God, I deliberately say, bet- 
ter disunion — better a civil or servile war — better anything that God 
in his providence shall send — than an extension of the bounds of 
slavery."* (3) 

Edmund Quincy, of Massachusetts, at the meeting of the 
American New York Anti-slavery Society^ at New York City, 
May, 1857, said : 

" He wished for a dissolution of the Union, because he wanted 
Massachusetts to be left free to right her own wrongs. If so, she 
would have no trouble in sending her ships to Charleston, and laying 
it in ashes. There was no State in the Union that would not contract, 
at a low figure, to whip South Carolina. Massachusetts could do it 
with one hand tied behind her back. He did not like such a republic 
as this. It was against his conscience. He hated and abhorred it. 
In order to hold any ofiice under the Government of the United States, 
a man must swear to support the Constitution, and, consequently, to 
support slavery in its various phases. It was as as inevitable that this 
Union should be dissolved as that water and oil must separate, no 
matter how much they may be shaken. They could not tell how it 
was to be done, but done it must be." f 

Hon. JosiAH Quincy, at Boston, August 18, 1854, said : 

" The Nebraska fraud is not the burden on which I now intend to 
speak. There is one nearer home, more immediately present, and more 
insupportable. Of what that burden is, I shall speak plainly. The 
obligation incumbent upon the free States to deliver up fugitive slaves 
is that burden — and it must be obliterated from that Constitution at 
every hazard.";}; 

The American Foreign Anti-slavery Society, in the resolutions 
j.assed at one of their meetings, revealed the foreign sources of 
the abolition strength in this country, by expressing their thank- 
fulness for the munificent contributions they had received from 
the " earnest men and women " of Great Britain. These con- 
tributions, it must be noted, have been made in the midst of the 

« Political Text-Book, p. 25. t Ibid., p. 26. j Ibid., p. 26. 



506 PULPIT POLITICS. 

protestations of tlie abolitionists, that they were laboring for the 
overthrow of the American Union. One of the resolutions reads 
thus : 

'■'■Resolved, That the discriminating sense of justice, the steadfast 
devotedness, the generous munificence, the untiring zeal, the industry, 
skill, taste, and genius, with which British ubolitionists have co-oper- 
ated with us for the extinction of slavery, command our gratitude. 

" From the abolitionists of England, Scotland, and Ireland, we have 
received renewed and increasing assurances and proofs of their con- 
stant and enlightened zeal in behalf of the American slave. Liberal 
gifts from all of these countries, falling behind none of the most 
bounteous of former years, helped to fill the scanty treasury of the 
slave."* (4) 

A convention held in Boston, in 1855, adopted, by a unani- 
mous vote, these resolutions : 

"Resolved, That a constitution which provides for a slave represen- 
tation and a slave oligarchy in Congress, which legalizes slave-hunting 
and slave-catching on every inch of American soil, and which pledges 
the military and naval power of the country to keep four millions of 
chattel slaves in their chains, is to bd trodden under foot and pro- 
nounced accursed, however unexceptionable or valuable may be its 
other provisions. 

"Resolved, That the one great issue before the country is, the dis- 
solution of the Union, in comparision with which all other issues with 
the slave power are as dust in the balance ; therefore we will give our- 
selves to the work of annulling this ' covenant with death,' as essen- 
tial to our own innocency, and the speedy and everlasting overthrow 
of the slave system. "f 

The Legislature of New Hampshire, in 1856, passed the fol- 
lowing resolution, in reference to the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise : 

'■'■Resolved, That the people of New Hampshire demand, as a right, 
the restoration of said Compromise, and the amendment of the Kansas 
Nebraska Bill, so-called, so as to exclude slavery from said territories, 
and will never consent to the admission into the Union of any State 
out of said territory with a constitution tolerating slavery. "J 

* Political Text-Book, p. 26. f Ibid., p. 26. % Ibid., p. 26. 



MOVEJIENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 507 

Hon, W. R. Sapp, of Ohio, in the House of Representatives, 
1st session, 34th Congress, said : 

"Yes, with freedom and Fremont and Dayton emblazoned on the 
ample folds of our national banner, we will drive the base minions of 
slavery from their control of the Government, and we will use its 
powers to build up our new country free from the taints of slavery, 
and make America worthy of being the North Star of freedom, by 
which the eye of the exile can be guided with safety to the asylum 
of liberty."* 

Senator Wade, of Ohio, in a speech at a mass meeting of the 
Republicans, held in Maine, in 1855, according to the Boston 
Atlas, said : 

" There was really no Union between the North and the South, and 
he believed no two nations upon the earth entertained feelings of more 
bitter rancor toward each other than these two sections of the Repub- 
lic. The only salvation of the Union, therefore, was to be found in 
divesting it entirely from all taint of slavery. There was no Union 
with the South. Let us have a Union, said he, or let us sweep away 
this remnant which we call a Union. I go for a Union where all men 
are equal, or for no Union at all, and I go for right. "f (5) 

Judge Spaulding, of Ohio, in the Republican Conventoin, said : 

" In the case of the alternative being presented of the continuance 
of slavery or a dissolution of the Union, I am for dissolution, and I 
care not how quick it comes. "| 

Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, in a speech delivered in 
Faneuil Hall, Boston, on the 2d November, 1855, said : 

" Not that I love the Union less, but freedom more, do I now, in 
pleading this great cause, insist that freedom, at all hazards, shall be 
preserved. God forbid that for the sake of the Union, we should 
sacrifice the very thing for which the Union was made."§ 

During the debate in the Senate, on the 26th June, 1854, Mr. 
Butler, of South Carolina, said : 

" I would like to ask the Senator, if Congress repealed the fugitive 



«■ Political Text-Book, p. 27. t Ibid., p. 29. J Ibid., p. 28. ^ Ibid., p. 28. 



508 PULPIT POLITICS. 

slave law, would Massachusetts execute the Constitutional require- 
ments, and send back to the South the absconding slaves ? 

" Mr. Sumner. — Do you ask if I would send back a slave? 

" Mr. Butler. — Why, yes. 

" Mr. Sumner. — Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing ? 

"Mr. Butler. Then you would not obey the Constitution. Sir, 
standing here before this tribunal, where you swore to support it, you 
rise and tell me that you regard it the office of a dog to enforce it. 
You stand in my presence as a co-equal Senator, and tell me that it 
is a dog's office to execute the Constitution of the United States ! " 

To which Mr. Sumner said : 

" I recognize no such obligation."* 

A convention was held in the city of Buflfalo, in 1843, at which 
the following resolution was unanimously adopted, with Mr. Chase 
as chairman on resolutions : 

^'■Resolved, That we hereby give it distinctly to be understood, by 
this nation and the world, that, as abolitionists, considering that the 
strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hopes for it in 
our conformity to the laws of God and our support of the rights of 
man, we owe to the sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our 
allegiance to Him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether as 
friends, citizens, or public functionaries sworn to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States, to regard and treat the third clause of 
the instrument, whenever applied in the case of a fugitive slave, as 
utterly null and void, and, consequently, as forming no part of the 
Constitution of the United States, whenever we are called upon or 
sworn to support it."f (6) 

REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING EXPRESSIONS OF OPINION. 

(1) This extreme view of negro equafity was once popular 
among the early abolitionists ; but, for many cogent reasons, 
founded upon the actual workings of the system, the social equal- 
ity of the black man is not now practically recognized in respect- 
able circles of the abolitionists. 

(2) It is well to note the eagerness of Rev. H. W. Beechcr, as 

* Political Text-Book, p. 28. t Ibid., p. 27. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 509 

early as 1855, for the conflict that was to cut the North loose 
from the South ; and, in this connection, to put upon record the 
declaration of that clergyman, that " one Sharp's rifle " had more 
moral power " than a hundred Bihles." His assertion may prob- 
ably be true, if restricted to that sacred volume as interpreted by 
himself. 

(3) Passing by the extravagance of persons of minor consid- 
eration, we cite, as a representative man, the language of Hon. 
Horace Mann. He but gave utterance to the traitorous senti- 
ments common among abolitionists, when he said: "JBetter dis- 
union — better a civil or servile war — better anything that God in 
his providence shall send — than an extension of the bounds of 
slavery." In this, he but expressed the wishes of the Massachu- 
setts lords of the cotton spindle, whom he represented. Edmund 
Quincy, of Boston, too, had to express his abhorrence of our 
republic, because of the compromises of the Constitution, and 
predicted the dissolution of the Union as inevitable. Hon. Jo- 
siah Quincy, of the same city, expressed the determination that 
the fugitive slave clause must be obliterated from the Constitu- 
tion at every hazard. These traitorous sentiments passed unre- 
buked by conservative men, because no danger was apprehended 
from such insane ravings. 

(4) It is instructive to find, in the midst of the labors of the 
abolitionists for the destruction of the American Union, that 
British gold was poured with "generous munificence" into their 
treasury to aid them in their unhallowed purposes. It is equally 
so, too, to find a convention in the city of Boston, without rebuke 
from its citizens, as long ago as 1855, pronouncing the Constitu- 
tion of the United States "accursed;" and asserting that the 
one great issue before the country was "the dissolution of the 
Union." 

(5) Hon. B. F. Wade, Hon. Charles Sumner, and Judge Spauld- 
ing, in expressing their desire for a dissolution of the Union, 
rather than that slavery should be continued, gave utterance to 
what, at the time, was a common sentiment among abolitionists. 

(6) The convention at Buff"alo, in resolving to repudiate the 
clause of the Constitution for the rendition of fugitive slaves. 



510 PULPIT POLITICS. 

notwithstanding their oaths to support the Constitution, is to ba 
taken as a fair index of the extent to which the revolutionary 
sentiment of the North had progressed. It seems strange, in a 
civilized country, to hear men openly avow the determination to 
repudiate Constitutional engagements, when they could not but 
know that it must lead to civil war, whenever the sentiment be- 
came general, and was incorporated into legislative enactments. 

How, then, did it come to pass that such opinions as these 
became prevalent among the people ? How did they become 
educated up to the belief that they could, without perjuring their 
souls, deliberately violate their oaths to support the Constitution? 
In answering these questions we must remark, that, for a long 
while, there was no settled creed among abolitionists that "v/ould 
cover all the cases of conscience that might arise ; and the ncces • 
sity for such a production became so pressing that the desider- 
atum was at length supplied. Lysander Spooner, Esq., of New 
York, undertook the task, and though his production maj? not 
have been universally approved by abolitionists, in all its prin- 
ciples, it yet afforded the basis of the greater portion of all sub- 
sequent abolition action. It was published in 1845, just after 
the complete organization of political abolitionism ; and its pre- 
cepts and reasonings are to be found ever afterward running 
throughout the productions of abolitionists. A synopsis oi the 
teachings of this work, at large, can not be given, for want of 
space ; but enough is presented to afford a true idea of its rad- 
ical and revolutionary tendencies. He chose for his title, '• The 
Unconstitutionality of Slavery." We shall begin with what he 
says of law: 

" Law is an intelligible principle of right, necessarily resulting from 
the nature of man ; and not an arbitrary rule, that can be established 
by mere will, numbers, or power. . . . Natural law, then, is the 
paramount law. . . . And this natural law is no other than that rule 
of natural justice which results either directly from men's natural rights, 
or from such acquisitions as they have a natural right to make, or from 

such contracts as they have a natural right to enter into 

Natural law, therefore, inasmuch as it recognizes the natural right of 
men to enter into obligatory contracts, permits the formation of gov- 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 511 

ernment, founded on contract, as all our governments profess to be. 
But in order that the contract of government may be valid and lawful, 
it must purport to authorize nothing inconsistent with natural justice, 
and men's natural rights."* 

" If the majority, however large, of the people of a country enter 
into a contract of government, called a constitution, by which they 
agree to aid, abet, or accomplish any kind of injustice, or to destroy or 
invade the natural rights of any person or persons whatsoever, whether 
such persons be parties to the compact or not, this contract of govern- 
ment is unlawful and void. . . . Such a contract of government 
has no moral sanction. It confers no rightful authority upon those 
appointed to administer it. It confers no legal or moral rights, and 
imposes no legal or moral obligation upon the people who are parties 
to it. The only duties which any one can owe to it, or to the govern- 
ment established under color of its authority, arc disobedience, resist- 
ance, destruction. 

"Judicial tribunals, sitting under the authority of this unlawful 
contract or constitution, are bound, equally with other men, to declare 
it, and all unjust enactments passed by the government in pursuance 
of it, unlawful and void. . . . No oaths, which judicial or other 
officers may take, to carry out and support an unlawful contract or 
constitution of government, are of any moral obligation. It is im- 
moral to take such oaths, and it is criminal to fulfill them. . . . 
If these doctrines are correct, then those contracts of government. 
State and National, which we call constitutions, are void and unlaw- 
ful, so far as they purport to authorize (if any of them do authorize) 
any thing in violation of natural justice, or the natural rights of any 
man or class of men whatsoever. And all judicial tribunals are bound, 
by the highest obligations that can rest upon them, to declare that 
these contracts, in all particulars, (if any such there be,) are void and 
not law. . . . Such is the true character and definition of law.""}* 

" It being admitted that a judge can rightfully administer injustice 
as law in no case, and on no pretense whatever ; that he has no right 
to assume an oath to do so; and that all oaths of that kind are mor- 
ally void; the question arises, whether a judge, who has actually sworn 
to support an unjust constitution, be morally bound to resign his seat? 
or whether he may rightfully retain his office, administering justice, 



* TJnconstitutionality of Slavery, by Lysander Spooner, pp. 5, 6, 7. 
t Ibid., pp. 9, 10. 



512 PULPIT POLITICS. 

instead of iajuptiee, regardless of his oath? The prevalent idea is, 
that he ought to resign his seat ; and high authorities may be cited 
for this opinion. Nevertheless the opinion is, probably, erroneous ; 
for it would seem that, however wrong it may be to take the oath, yet 
the oath, when taken, being morally void to all intents and purposes, 
can no more bind the taker to resign his office than to fulfill the oath 
itself. The case appears to be this : The office is simply power, put 
into a man's hands on the condition, based upon his oath, that he will 
use that power to the destruction or injury of some person's rights. 
This condition, it is agreed, is void. He holds the power, then, by 
the same right that he would have done if it had been put into his 
hands icithout the condition. Now, seeing that he can not fulfill, and 
is under no obligation to fulfill, this void condition, the question is, 
whether he is bound to resign the power, in order that it may be given 
to some one who will fulfill the condition? or whether he is bound to 
hold the power, not only for the purpose of using it himself in defense 
of justice, but also for the purpose of withholding it from the hands 
of those who, if he surrender it to them, will use it unjustly? It is 
clear that he is bound to retain it for both of these reasons."* 

In illustration of the principle here stated, the author of the 
work from which we quote, puts the following case : 

" Suppose A and B come to C with money, which they have stolen 
from D, and intrust it to him, on condition of his taking an oath to 
restore it to them when they shall call for it. Of course, C ought 
not to take such an oath to get possession of the money ; yet, if he 
have taken the oath, and received the money, his duty, on both moral 
and legal principles, is then the same as though he had received it 
without any oath or condition : because the oath and condition are both 
morally and legally void. And if he were to restore the money to A 
and B, instead of restoring it to D, the true owner, he would make 
himself their accomplice in the theft — a receiver of stolen goods. It 
is his duty to restore it to D. 

" Suppose A and B come to C with a captive, D, whom they have 
seized with the intention of reducing him to slavery ; and should leave 
him in the custody of C, on condition of C's taking an oath that he 
will restore him to them again. Now, although it is wrong for C to 
take such an oath for the purpose of getting the custody of D, even 

* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, pp. 147-150. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 513 

with a view to set him free, yet, if he have taken it, it is void, and his 
duty then is, not to give D up to his captors, but to set him at liberty 
— else he will be an accomplice in the crime of enslaving him." -i- 

At this stage of the investigation, it is obvious that an anti- 
slavery man, aiming at attaining a seat on the bench of the United 
States Supreme Court, to operate against slavery, could not do 
so, excepting by committing a moral wrong in swearing to admin- 
ister justice according to the Constitution and laws — these laws 
sanctioning slavery, and requiring the judge to order the return 
of fugitives from slavery back again into bondage. 

Now, here comes in the distinction between the Garrisonians 
and the adherents of the Liberty party. The former believed 
that the Constitution authorizes and protects slavery, and that 
its destruction is necessary to the extinction of that institution. 
The latter believed that slavery might be abolished under the 
Constitution, by a strict construction of its provisions, and that 
anti-slavery men, therefore, may consistently vote and hold office 
under the Government. But this view demanded a totally new 
theory of interpretation of the Constitution ; and this was at 
hand as soon as needed. Mr. Spooner, before quoted, supplied 
the desideratum, though others had been beforehand in some of 
the principles belonging to his system. We shall attempt to 
state his theory, and we do it the more willingly, because the 
quotations already made from Lord Stowell and Mr. O'Connor, 
and others, present a complete expose of the fallacies and absurd- 
ities of his positions. 

According to Mr. Spooner, slavery, probably, neither has, nor 
ever had, any constitutional existence in this country.f Our an- 
cestors brought with them from England the common law, the 
writ of habeas corpus, the trial by jury, and the other great prin- 
ciples which have rendered it impossible that her soil should be 
trod by the foot of a slave. These principles were incorporated 
in all the charters granted to the colonies. ;{; No one of all these 
charters contained the least intimation that slavery had, or could 
have, any legal existence under them. Slavery was, therefore, as 

* rnconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 151. t Ibid., p. 20. % Ibid., p. 21. 

33 



514 PULPIT POLITICS. 

much unconstitutional in the colonies as it was in England.* 
Lord Mansfield's decision, made before the revolution, settled the 
question that slavery could have no existence upon British soil. 
This decision was equally obligatory in this country as in Eng- 
land, and must have freed every slave here if the question had 
been raised.f The fact that England tolerated the African slave 
trade at the time, could not legally establish slavery in the colo- 
nies, any more than it did in England. J Besides, the mere toler- 
ation of the. slave trade could not make slavery itself — the right 
of property in man — lawful anywhere; not even on board the 
slave-ship. Toleration of a Avrong is not law.§ Even if a wrong 
can be legalized at all, so as to enable one to acquire rights of 
property by such wrong, it can be done only by an explicit and 
positive provision.il The English statutes, on the subject of the 
slave trade, never attempted to legalize the right of property in 
man, in any of the thirteen North American colonies.^ But Lord 
Mansfield said, in Somerset's case, that slavery was " so odious 
that nothing can he suffered to support it, but positive laic." No 
such positive law was ever passed by Parliament — certainly not 
with reference to any of these thirteen colonies.** There was, 
therefore, no constitutional slavery in the colonies up to the time 
of the Revolution. ft 

So much for British legislation. Up to the time of the Revo- 
lution, according to Mr. Spooner, slavery had not been established 
by positive law, by the mother country, in any of the North 
American colonies ; and, as it is contrary to natural law, slavery 
could, therefore, have had no legal existence here, excepting 
where it may have been established by colonial legislation. But 
the colonial legislation, says Mr. Spooner, was not only void as 
being forbidden by the colonial charters, but in many of the 
colonies it was void because it did not sufficiently define the per- 
sons who might be made slaves.|J 

" "When slavery was first introduced into the country, there were no 
laws at all on the subject. Men bought slaves of the slave-traders as 

* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 23. f Ibid. t Ibid. ? Ibid., p. 24. 
U Ibid. f Ibid. *» Ibid. tt Ibid., p. 31. ft Ibid., p. 32 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 515 

they would have bought horses. . . . Yet all the while no act 
had been passed declaring who might be slaves. Possession was ap- 
parently all the evidence that public sentiment demanded of a master's 
property in his slave."* 

Slavery not being established by positive statute, either by 
British or colonial legislation, it is argued by Mr. Spooner that, 
at the date of the Declaration of Independence, there could be 
no legal slavery in the country. 

But admitting that slavery may have had an existence prior to 
the Declaration of Independence, either by British or colonial 
enactments, Mr. Spooner argues that the adoption of this instru- 
ment, as it absolves the people of the colonies from all allegiance 
to British law, so it freed every slave in the country — all former 
laws being thereby abrogated, and the principles of the Declara- 
tion only applying to the population. These truths, he insists, 
have never been denied or revoked by the American people, and 
are, therefore, in full force. f He then proceeds to say, that 

" Our courts would want no other authority than this truth, thus 
acknowledged, for setting at liberty any individual, other than one 
having negro blood, whom our Governments. State or National, should 
assume to authorize another individual to enslave. Why, then, do 
they not apply the same law in behalf of the African ? Certainly not 
because it is not as much the law of his' case as of others. But it is 
simply because they will not. It is because the courts are a party to 
the understanding, prevailing among the white race, but expi-essed in 
no constitutional form, that the negro may be deprived of his rights 
at the pleasure of avarice and power. And they carry out this un- 
expressed understanding in defiance of, and suffer it to prevail over, 
all our constitutional principles of government — all our authentic, 
avowed, open, and funda.mental law." J 

Mr. Spooner proceeds from the Declaration to the State Con- 
stitutions, and says, that of all of them that were in force at the 
adoption of the Constitution of the United States, in 1789, not 
one of ilicm established or recognized slavery; and that all those 
parts of the old thirteen States that recognize and attempt to 

* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 33. t Ibid., p. 38. X Ibid., p. 39. 



516 PULPIT POLITICS. 

sanction slavery, have been inserted, by amendments, since the 
adojyiion of the Constitution of the United States.* In their orig- 
inal form, he says, they generally recognized the natural rights 
of men ; and not one of them had any specific recognition of the 
existence of slavery.f And, after reviewing the Constitutions 
of the several States at length, he repeats what he had so often 
asserted, that 

"Slavery is so entirely contrary to natural right; so entirely desti- 
tute of authority from natural law ; so palpably inconsistent with all 
the legitimate objects of government, that nothing but express and ex- 
plicit provision can be recognized, in law, as giving it any sanction. '"| 

In his examination, next, of the Articles of Confederation, as 
well as elsewhere, Mr. Spooner undertakes to prove that the 
word " free " is used as the correlative of " aliens," and not of 
" slaves," and that the negroes are thereby recognized as " citi- 
zens " and " inhabitants," but never as slaves.§ 

Lastly, the Constitution itself comes under consideration, and 



" We have already seen that slavery had not been authorized or 
established by any of the fundamental constitutions or charters that 
had existed previous to this time j that it had always been a mere 
abuse sustained by the common consent of the strongest party, in 
defiance of the avowed constitutional principles of their governments. 
And the question now is, whether it was constitutionally established, 
authorized, or sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States ?"|| 

In answering this question Mr. Spooner decides that it is per- 
fectly clear that 

" The Constitution of the United States did not, of itself create 
or establish slavery as a new institution ; or even give any authority 
to the State governments to establish it as a new institution. The 
greatest sticklers do not claim this. The most they claim is, that it 
recognized it as an institution already existing, under the authority 

* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 39. t Ibid-, P- 40. 

X Ibid., p. 43. § Ibid., pp. 51, 52, 53. 1| Ibid., p. 54 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 517 

of the State governments ; and that it virtually guaranteed to the 
States the right of continuing it in existence during their pleasure. 
And this is really the only question arising out of the Constitution 
of the United States on this subject, viz., whether it did thus recog- 
nize and sanction slavery as an existing institution? This question 
is, in reality, answered in the negative by what has already been 
shown ; for if slavery had no constitutional existence, uikIlt the State 
constitutions, prior to the adoption of the Constitution oi' the United 
States, then it is absolutely certain that the Constitution did 7iot recog- 
nize it as a constitutional institution; for it cannot, of course, be pre- 
tended that the United States Constitution recognized, as constitu- 
tional, any State institution that did not constitutionally exist. Even 
if the Constitution of the United States had intended to recognize 
slavery, as a constitutional State institution, such intended recognition 
would have failed of eflFect, and been legally void, because slavery 
then had no constitutional existence to be recognized. * 

"We might here safely rest the whole question — for no one, as has 
already been said, pretends that the Constitution of the United States, 
by its own authority, created or authorized slavery as a new institu- 
tion ; but only that it intended to recognize it as one already estab- 
lished by authority of the State constitutions. This intended recog- 
nition — if there were any such — being founded on an error as to what 
the State constitutions really did authorize, necessarily falls to the 
ground, as a defunct institution, 

" We make a stand, then, at this point, and insist that the main 
question — the only material question — is already decided against slav- 
ery ; and that it is of no consequence what recognition or sanction the 
Constitution of the United States may have intended to extend to it. 

" The Constitution of the United States, at its adoption, certainly 
took effect upon, and made citizens of all ' the people of the United 
States,' who were not slaves under the State constitutions. No one 
can deny a proposition so self-evident as that. If, then, the State 
constitutions then existing authorized no slavery at all, the Consti- 
tution of the United States took effect upon and made citizens of all 
' the people of the United States,' without discrimination. And if 
all ' the people of the United States ' were made citizens of the United 
States, by the United States Constitution, at its adoption, it was then 
forever too late for the State governments to reduce any of them to 

* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, pp. 54, 55. 



51S PULPIT POLITICS. 

slavery. They were theucefortli citizens :-f a higher government 
under a Constitution that was 'the supreme law of the land,' 'any- 
thing in the constitution or laws of the States to the contrary not- 
withstanding.' If the State governments could enslave citizens of the 
United States, the State constitutions, and not the Constitution of the 
United States, would be the ' supreme law of the land ' — for no higher 
act of supremacy could be exercised by one government over another, 
than that of taking the citizens of the latter out of the protection of 
their government, and reducing them to slavery."* 

Mr. Spooner next discusses the question of " the undekstand- 
ING OF THE PEOPLE " in reference to the establishment of slavery 
by the Constitution, and comes to this conclusion : 

" Now is it not idle and useless to pretend, when even the strongest 
slaveholding States had free constitutions — when not one of the sepa- 
rate States, acting for itself, would have any but a free constitution — 
that the whole thirteen, when acting in unison, should concur in estab- 
lishing a slaveholding one ? The idea is preposterous. The single 
fact that all the State constitutions were at that time free ones, scatters 
forever the pretense that the majority of the people of all the States 
either intended to establish, or could have been induced to establish, 
any other than a free one for the nation. Of course it scatters also 
the pretense that they believed or understood that they were establish- 
ing any but a free one."f .... 

" At the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, there 
was no legal or Constitutional slavery in the States. Not a single 
State constitution then in existence, recognized, authorized, or sanc- 
tioned slavery. All the slaveholding then practiced was merely a 
private crime committed by one person against another, like theft, 
robbery, or murder. All the statutes which the slaveholders, through 
their wealth and influence, procured to be passed, were unconstitu- 
tional and void, for the want of any constitutional authority in the 
legislatures to enact them. "J 

Having thus proved, as he supposes, that slavery is unconsti- 
tutional and illegal, Mr. Spooner proceeds to determine how the 
liberty of the slaves is to be secured; and this he decides is to 
be accomplished by the courts, under the writ of habeas corpus. 
He states the case as follows : 

* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 56. t Ibid., p. 126. t Ibid., p. 271. 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 519 

" This right of personal liberty, this sine qua non to the enjoyment 
of all other rights, is secured by the writ of habeas corpus. This writ, 
as has before been shown, necessarily denies the right of property in 
man, and therefore liberates all who are restrained of their liberty on 
that pretense, as it does all others that are restrained on grounds in- 
consistent with the intended operation of the Constitution and laws 

of the United States As the government is bound to 

dispense its benefits impartially to all, it is bound, first of all, after 
securing 'the public safety, in cases of rebellion and invasion,' to 
secure liberty to all. And the whole power of the G<>vcrnment is 
bound to be exerted for this purpose, to the postponement^ if need be, 
of everything else save, ' the public safety, in cases of rebellion and 
invasion.' And it is the constitutional duty of the government to 
establish as many courts as may be necessary (no matter how great 
the number,) and to adopt all other measures necessary and proper, 
for bringing the means of liberation within the reach of every person 
who is restrained of his liberty in violation of the principles of the 
Constitution.* .... The power of the General Government to 
liberate men from slavery, by the use of the writ of habeas corpus, is 

of the amplest character If these opinions are correct, 

it is the constitutional duty of Congress to establish courts, if need be^ 
in every county and township even, where there are slaves to be liber- 
ated ; to provide attorneys to bring the cases before the courts, and 
to keep a standing military force, if need be, to sustain the proceed- 
ings, "f 

With such an interpretation of the Constitution as we have 
presented here, all obstacles to swearing to support it, on the 
part of Judges of the United States Courts, are fully removed ; 
and with the bench filled with abolition judges, the work of eman- 
cipation could progress with rapidity. It was under the convic- 
tion of the truth of this interpretation of the Constitution, that 
Mr. Burlingame asserted that one of his aims, as a member of 
Congress, was to have judges who " believe in an anti-slavery 
Constitution ;" and who would, consequently, use their official 
power in promoting emancipation ; and it was in the same spirit 
that the Free Soil candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, Mr. Brown, declared it to bo the object of the free 

* Unconstitutionality of Slavery, p. 276. t Ibid., p. 277. 



52C PULPIT POLITICS. 

States to take possession of the Government by their united 
votes. To have succeeded in this would have enabled the Free 
Soil party to control the courts, and thus promote the work of 
abolition. 

But the conservative men of the North rebuked this spirit of 
fanaticism by the defeat of the Free Soil party ; and the present 
dominant party came into power under the pledge of non-inter- 
ference with slavery where it exists. One wing of this party 
had other aims, we know, in giving it support ; but the great 
mass of the people belonging to it repudiated the charge that 
they contemplated promoting the abolition of slavery. 

The whole theory of the abolitionists, in reference to the un- 
constitutionality of slavery, and the consequent exemption of the 
citizens of the North from all obligations to ^recognize the right 
of the master to his slave, is based upon the fiction of Lord 
Manfield, in which he asserted that slavery can only exist as the 
creature of local law; and that, therefore, where no positive stat- 
utes exist, establishing slavery, there no slavery can prevail, if 
the courts do their duty. But the discussions of Lord Stowel. 
and others, quoted in the present chapter, show that Lord Mans 
field's opinion has not been recognized as correct; and the fact 
that American slavery has been treated as a legal relation by the 
American Congress, in various ways ; by Great Britain, in payinj^ 
for slaves illegally taken from their American owners ; and by 
the Emperor of Russia, as an umpire in the case referred to 
him ;* all go to prove that slavery requires no positive statutes 
for its establishment ; but that, at the time the Constitution was 

* " RiauT OF Proi'f.rty in Slaves recognized by Great Britain. — The 
Lotidon Courier s&ys: 'His Excellency, Mr. Stevenson, the American Minister, 
attended yesterday at the treasury department and Bank of England, and 
closed the negotiation which has been pending so long between the Govern- 
ment and that of the United States, relative to the number of slaves claimed 
by American citizens as their property, and which, having been shipwrecked. 
Some eight or nine years ago, in the Bahamas, were liberated by the authorities 
of Nassau. The amount of compensation which we understand her majesty's 
Government finally agreed to pay, and was yesterday received by the Ameri- 
can Minister, amounted to between thirty and forty thousand pounds sterling.' 
—Niles' Rec/hier, Februarys, 1840." 



MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS — BY INDIVIDUALS. 521 

adopted, African slavery was everywhere recognized as a lawful 
institution. The whole history of the country, so far as the 
African race is concerned, shows conclusively that no notice 
was intended to be taken of slavery by the framers of the Con- 
stitution, because, over that question the people did not intend 
to give the National Government any power whatever. The 
South so understood the compact ; the North so understood it ; 
and no one ever dreamed of giving the Constitution any other 
interpretation, until the rise of abolitionism. In no other sense 
than that in which it was adopted, can it be binding. Mr. Spoon- 
er's theories, therefore, are all fudge ; and yet much of the action 
both in and out of Congress, on the part of the abolitionists, has 
been based upon liis theories. Indeed, they are the only ones 
that can justify the treason of aholitionism — the only ones that 
will clear the conscience of the fanatic who attempts to resist the 
execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, or destroy the Union. 

We might have extended the quotations in this section indef- 
initely ; but as they are used only for illustration, it was not im- 
portant that they should be multiplied. They show very clearly 
the feeling existing at the North against the Constitution and 
the Union, on account of slavery ; and when taken in connection 
with the documents presented in the two preceding sections, 
prove conclusively that the right of secession, and even the dis- 
solution of the Union, were questions favorably entertained at 
the North, even by men who had solemnly sworn to support the 
Constitution. 

It will be noticed that the expressions of sentiment, which are 
quoted, date back several years, to a time Avhen there was room 
for calm reflection ; when deliberate purposes could be formed, 
and suitable measures to carry them out adopted. After the war 
began, individual opinions varied from day to day, and as these 
later opinions had no influence in producing it, they have no con- 
nection with the objects before us. 

How far any of the opinions given were designed for mere 
local political eff'ect, we shall not undertake to determine ; the 
practical results at the South were the same as though the North 
was in earnest in these utterances. They were spread broad- 



o::"i PULPIT POLITICS. 

cast over the slave States, and produced that alarm which en- 
abled the political leaders to precipitate the people of the South 
into acts of rebellion. Conservative men were as remiss in duty 
there, as they have been here. The penalty is now being exe- 
cuted upon them. 

Section IY. — Movements North and South precipitating 
Cn^iL War. 

A history, in detail, of the movements in the South, con- 
nected with counter-movements in the North, which precipitated 
the nation into civil war, is not necessary to the purpose we have 
in view. A few leading facts and incidents, in relation to the 
sectional contests resulting so fatally, will serve to convey a cor- 
rect impression of the manner in which the actors brought on the 
final collision of arms, and compelled conservative men to rally 
for the preservation of the Union. 

The year 1832 found South Carolina in the midst of her nuUi- 
fication measures. All the other slave States remained loyal to 
the Government ; and even a large portion of the citizens of that 
rebel State continued true to the Union, and were most efficient 
agents in the work of restoring harmony when the proclamation 
of General Jackson appeared. At this period, therefore, the 
South at large were not contemplating secession and disunion. 

But the peace of the country, secured by the energy of Gen- 
eral Jackson, and by the statesman-like abilities of Henry Clay, 
who, in connection with the President, devised a compromise 
which satisfied both the discontented State and the General Gov- 
ernment, was again to be disturbed. The pulpits and ecclesias- 
tical councils at the North kept up the agitation on slavery. 
With two or three exceptions, every religious denomination stood 
pledged to labor on, and labor ever, for its overthrow. One of 
the most prominent Churches in the nation, at every succeeding 
conference, asked the question : " What can be done for the ex- 
tirpation of the evil of slavery ? " The clergymen who had become 
tainted with abolition sentiments, were crying aloud that they 
would give neither sleep to their eyes, nor slumber to their eye- 
lids, until the last slave in the land should be proclaimed a free- 



MOVExMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 523 

man. Lecturers, commissioned and paid by abolition societies, 
swarmed over the North like the locusts of old, when, in judg- 
ment, thej darkened the land of Egypt in their flight, and de- 
stroyed every green thing upon which they descended; and 
agents from Great Britain came to their help, to aid in the work 
of assailing the South * Abolitionists boasted that British gold 
was not lacking, but supplied with liberal hand, to promote the 
work of ruin which, it had been decreed in Exeter Hall, should 
overtake the American planter. 

But the eftorts of the abolitionists were not to be limited to 
moral means alone. New political parties were organized, ex- 
pressly to lend their aid in promoting the work of abolition. 
The old established political parties reeled under the blows of 
the new, or, taking them to their bosoms, perished in the em- 
brace. The original interpretations of the Constitution were set 
aside, and new ones adopted that would justify an aggressive 
warfare upon Southern institutions. Agencies were formed, ex- 
tending into the slave States, to entice the slaves to escape from 
their masters ; and provision was made in the free States, to en- 
able the fugitives to flee in safety beyond the reach of their pur- 
suers. The legislatures of many of the northern States passed 
enactments forbidding the execution of the original law of Con- 
gress for the return of runaway slaves ; and the re-enactment 
of the Fugitive Slave Law, to meet the existing obstacles to the 
fulfillment of constitutional engagements, was made the occasion 
of renewed attacks upon the institutions and men of the South. 

But, up to this date,t the balance of power between the slave 
and free States had remained undisturbed. Texas was in the 
Union, and its territory, though capable of being subdivided into 
five States, could not be made available to the South for an in- 
crease of power, as, according to the treaty of admission, two of 
the additional four States must be free, and the two remaining 
ones slaveholding. 

® Englishmen seemed not to liuve forgotten the declaration of the Earl of Dart- 
mouth, when, in opposing the aholition of the slave trade, shortly before the 
American Revolution, he said : " Negroes cannot become republicans; they will 
be a power in our hands to restrain the unrulj' colonists." 

t The Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850. 



524 PULPIT POLITICS. 

A little previous to this,* an unsuccessful attempt had been 
made to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, so 
that all territory acquired by the Mexican War, and lying South 
of that line, might be secured to slavery. This measure failing, 
left the South in a position of great uncertainty as to the future ; 
and the fears entertained were well-grounded, as, in the subse- 
quent organization of California, a large area of country lying 
South of the Missouri line was included in the territory of that 
State, and slavery excluded from the whole. The admission of 
California as a free State,t with more than one-third of its 
territory South of 36° 30', was viewed by the South as a 
virtual abrogation of the Missouri Compromise, and as indicat- 
ing an intention of putting the " Wilmot Proviso " into practical 
operation. :]: 

As the territories then remained. New Mexico alone lay South 
of 36° 30', while immense regions were North of it, awaiting the 
westward flow of population, to come into the Union as free 
States. § The South had no corresponding quantity of territory 
on its side of the line ; and unless its institutions could be spread 
North of that line, so as to maintain the balance of power, it 
must soon be overwhelmed by the anti-slavery forces from the 
North. And even New Mexico, though South of 36° 30', might 
share the fate of the Southern portion of California, and be 
wrested from the South by congressional enactment. 

The Missouri Compromise had excluded slavery from all the 
territory North of 36° 30' which was obtained by the purchase 
of Louisiana. The extension of slavery, therefore, to the North 
of that line, could not be effected except by the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise. Minnesota and Oregon were preparing for 
admission into the Union, and Kansas and Nebraska Avere asking 
for territorial organization. In the Congressional bill for the 



♦August, 1848— the Mexican War having been closed in May previous. 

t California was admitted in 1850. 

J The "Wilmot Proviso," brouijiht forward in Congress in 184G and 1847, but 
never adopted, pre posed to oxcliido slavery from all territories ever acquired on 
this continent. 

2 It will be well for the reader to examine a map. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 525 

organization of these territories, the Missouri Compromise was 
repealed,* and the territories both North and South of 36° 30' 
thrown open to the competition of the opposing forces — slavery 
and anti-sLaverj. This brought on the Kansas troubles, in which 
the South was overwhelmed by the superior forces thrown into 
the territory from New England. 

All this vast territory north of 36° 30', extending, we may say, 
to the Pacific, was included in the Louisiana purchase, and, con- 
sequently, slave territory.! But as the purchase had been made 
by the common funds of the nation, tlie North laid claim to a part 
of the territory, and, by the Missouri Compromise, took the lion's 
share of it. The South was looking toward Mexico to maintain 
the balance of power, by gaining territory better adapted to slav- 
ery, south of 36° 30', and submitted to the loss in patience. 

But the developments of abolition principles at the North, by 
which it became evident the South would be denied access to the 
territories with its slave property, and that no more slave States 
would be admitted, left it but one resource to secure its safety. 
This was to protect itself against interference with slavery within 
the States where it existed ; and this could only be effected by 
the insertion of a new clause in the Constitution. Such an 
amendment was the more necessary, as the new doctrines em- 
braced at the North, that slavery is unconstitutional, and can be 
abolished by the courts, was entertained by not a few. No one 
could tell at what moment the small party holding this doctrine, 
and having the balance of power at the North, might gain the 
control of the Government, and force the question to an issue. 

In the meantime, the results of emancipation in Ilayti, Mexico, 
Bolivia, the British West Indies, and the French Islands, were 
manifesting themselves to the Avorld, and demonstrating the utter 
worthlessness of a free negro population as a laboring force in 
the cultivation of staple 2}roduclions. All these results were per- 
fectly well known at the South, and its people fully believed that 



♦This bill was passed in 1854. 

t John Quincy Adams, in his speech on the admission of Arkansas, said that 
slavery existed there at the time of the acquisition, and that he was, therefore, 
bound to admit her with slavery. 



526 PULPIT POLITICS. 

emancipation would result in ruin to themselves and their pos- 
terity, as well as in the extermination of the weaker race. Thej 
were not alone in holding this belief. " M. de Tocqtieville, who 
had judged America with so sure an eve,"* in speaking of 
negro slavery in the United States, had said : 

" Hitherto, wherever the whites have been the more powerful, they 
have held the negroes in degradation and slavery ; wherever the ne- 
groes have been the more powerful, they have destroyed the whites. 
This is the only account which can ever be opened between the two 
races.'" 

Already the ground had been taken that no more slave States 
should be admitted, and that slavery should not be extended into 
the Territories. The manner in which these doctrines were met 
by the statesmen of the South, may be inferred from the debates 
in Congress during the session of 1855-56. A few extracts will 
serve as illustrations. 

Mr. Cox, of Kentucky, in the House, December 20, 1855, said : 

" When you tell me that you intend to put a restriction on the Ter- 
ritories. I say to you that upon that subject the South is a unit, and 
will not submit to any such thing. You do not understand that, or 
you would not press it so pertinaciously. "f 

Mr. Cajlpbell, of Kentucky, in the House, Dec. 19, 1855, said : 

" It is an interference with our institutions, when our citizens are 
denied the same rights in the new Territories with the citizens of the 
North ; for that Territory belongs as much to us as it does to you. 
. . . We regard this confederacy as secondary in importance, and 
when a government falters in carrying out its guarantees for the pro- 
tection of life, liberty, and property, it is no longer entitled to the 
fealty of its citizens. And in addition to that, I will avow this sen- 
timent, believing that it will be indorsed by my constituency, that 
whenever this Government makes a distinction between a Southern 
and a Northern constituency or citizenship, then we shall no longer 

* Count de Gasparin uses the quotation here made in his recent Essay on the 
" Co-eiistence of the two Baces after Emancipation." 
t Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 30. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 527 

consider ourselves bound to support the confederacy, but will resort 
to the right of revolution, which is recognized by all."='= 

Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in tlic House, Dec. 24, 1855, said : 

" The gentleman from Massachusetts has announced to the world 
that, in certain contingencies, he is willing to ' let the Union slide.' 
Now, sir, let his contingencies be reversed, and I am also willing to 
' let the Union slide,' — ay, sir, to aid in making it slide. ... I 
hesitate not to say, that if his construction of the constitutional power 
of Congress over the Territories shall prevail in this country, I, for 
one, heartily indorse the sentiment."f 

Mr. BOYCE, of South Carolina, in the House, Jan. 4, 1856, said : 

" I have thought, and I still think, and I have expressed the opin- 
ion, that there are circumstances Avhicli are hurrying us almost irre- 
sistibly to disruption. ... I have seen at the North the formation 
of a great party, based upon the single idea of hostility to the insti- 
tutions of the South. The only question with mu, then, as to the 
continuance of the Union is, whether that party will take possession 
of the North? If they do,' in my opinion, the Union is at an end. 
. . . What is that party pledged to ? The great boasting idea of 
that party is, that freedom is national, and slavery is sectional. That 
party, then, are obliged, if they come into power, as is recommended in 
the resolutions of the State of Maine, presented to the Senate yesterday, 
to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and to prohibit it in all 
the Territories, arsenals, and dock-yards in the United States. Well, 
then, it seems to me that if that party comes into power, pledged to 
those measures, we shall be in the midst of chaos, and anarchy, and 
revolution. 

" This great sectional party at the North, goes upon the idea that, 
by uniting together at the North, they can obtain the control of this 
Government, and dispense its vast patronage among themselves, and 
reduce the people of the South to a secondary and subordinate con- 
dition. . . . That party which places itself upon the position of 
giving power to the North, will eventually succeed; and when that 
party does succeed, in my opinion, the Union will be at an end."| 

* Congressional Globe, p. 56. t Political Text-Cook, p. 601. 

J Congressional Globe, p. 143. 



528 prxpiT POLITICS. 

Mr. BococK, of Tirginia, in the House, January 19, addressing 
himself to the Republicans, said : 

" You cheat yourself with the delusion that your platform makes 
you national. You declare war on the institution of slavery wherever 
the strong arm of this Government can reach it. and call that a national 
platform. To justify so absurd a position, you love to employ the 
specious phrase that ' freedom is national, and slavery sectional.' I 
tell gentlemen that it is a cheat and delusion. . . . When, in 
vour platform, you come forward and say that your institutions alone 
are entitled to the protection of the Government, and that ours are to 
be discountenanced and restricted by its action, then you lay down a 
sectional platform, and array yourselves into a sectional party. You 
put us beyond the pale of the Constitution, and you force us to fight 
yon by every fair and honorable means, and we shall do it."* 

Judge Butler, of South Carolina, in the Senate, March 27, 
1856, said : 

••I say now, calmly, that when a Northern majority shall acquire 
such a control over the legislation of this country as to disfranchise 
the slaveholding States, in any respect in which they have an equality 
under the Constitution of the country, I will not agree to live under 
this Government, when the Union can survive the Constitution. . . 
All that I have contended for is, that the domain of this Government, 
acquired by the common blood and treasure of all parts of the United 
States, shall be just as free to one class of citizens as another. . . 
But, sir, if an insulting interference were to be made by a majority 
of Congress, or such an interference as would exclude a slaveholder 
on the broad ground that he was unworthy of equality with a non-slave- 
holding population, do you suppose I would stay in the Union if I 
could get out of it?"T 

Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, in the House, Jan. 17, 1856, said: 

" I was willing to divide, as an alternative only, but a majority of 
the North would not consent to it ; and now we have got the great 
principle, established in 1850, carried out in the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, that Congress, after removing all obstructions, is not to intervene 

* Congress. Globe, p. 26-L t Ibid., p. 753, and Political Text-Book, p. 603. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 529 

against us. Tliis is tlie old Southern Republican principle, attained 
after a hard and protracted struggle in 1850, and I say, if Congress 
ever again exercises the power to exclude' the South from an equal 
participation in the common Territories, I, as a southern man, am for 
resisting it." * 

Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, in the Senate, Feb. 25, 1856, said : 

" We ask nothing but what the Constitution guarantees to us. That 
much we do ask. That much we will have. I do not wish to be excited 
about this matter. We do not mean to be driven from our propriety, 
but there is a fixed, immutable, universal determination, on the part 
of the South, never to be driven a single inch further. Tf we are not to 
enjoy our rights under the Constitution, tell us so; and if wo may, let 
us separate peaceably and decently. ... I tell you, in every hand 
there will be a knife, and there will be war to the knife, and the knife 
to the hilt." t 

Mr. Letcher, of Virginia, in the House, March 13, 185G, said : 

" If you undertake to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law, and deprive 
us of the means of recovering our property when it is stolen from us. 
. . . If you undertake to abolish slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, and prohibit it in the Territories of the United States by Congress- 
ional legislation, . . . you will find that the South, if it has a 
particle of self-respect — and I know that it has — will be prepared to 
resist any, and all, such measures." | 

Mr. Warner, of Georgia, in the House, April 1, 1856, said : 

" We have been told by those who advocate this line of policy, 
that they do not desire to interfere with slavery in the States where 
it exists ; and yet it is their intention to prevent the extension of 
slavery, by excluding it from the common territory. . . . It mat- 
ters but little with me, whether a man takes my property outright, 
or restricts me in the enjoyment of it, so as to render it of but little 
or no value to me. . . . Slavery can not be confined within cer- 
tain specified limits without producing the destruction of both mas- 
ter and slave ; it requires fresh lands. ... If the slaveholding 

* Political Text-Book, p. 603, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. GO. 
t Political Text-Book, p. 603, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 95. 
t Political Text-Book, p. 603, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 230. 

34 



5o0 PULPIT POLITICS. 

States should ever be so regardless of their rights, and their powei. 
as co-equal States, to be -willing to submit to this proposed restric- 
tion, . . . they could not do it. They ought not to submit to 
it on principle, if they could, and could not if they would. 

" It is in view of these things, sir, that the people of Georgia have 
assembled in convention, and solemnly resolved that, if Congress shall 
pass a law excluding them from the common property, with their 
slave property, they will disrupt the ties that bind them to the Union. 
This position has not been taken by way of threat or menace. Georgia 
never threatens, but Georgia always acts."* 

Mr. Shorter, of Alabama, in the House, April 9, 1856, said : 

" I believe in the right of a sovereign State to secede from the 
Union whenever she determines that the Federal Constitution has 
been violated by Congress ; and that this Government has no consti- 
tutional power to coerce such seceding States. ... I think South 
Carolina mistook her remedy — secession, and not nullification, ought 
to have been her watchword. . . . The extraordinary exertions 
made by Massachusetts .... to rob the South of her equal 
rights in the Territories has had one efi"ect. You have thoroughly 
aroused the southern States to a sense of their danger. You have 
caused them coolly to estimate the value of the Union ; and we are 
determined to maintain our equality in it, or independence out of it. 

" The South has planted itself where it intends to stand or fall. 
Union or no Union, and that is, upon the platform laid down by the 
Georgia convention. . . . We tell you plainly that we take issue 
with you; and whenever you repeal the Fugitive Slave Law, or refuse 
to admit a State on account of slavery in her Constitution, or our 
equality in the territories is sacrificed by an act of Congress, then the 

star of this Union will go down to rise no more Should 

we be forced to dissolve the Union in order to preserve Southern in- 
stitutions and Southern civilization, we will do it in peace, if we can ; 
in war, if we must ; and let the God of Battles decide between us. 

" The shadows, sir, of the coming storm already darken our path- 
way. It will soon be upon us with all its fury."t 

Mr. Barksdale, of Mississippi, in the House, July 23, 1856, 
said : 

• Political Text-Book, p. 604, and Appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 297. 
t Political Text-Book, p. 604. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 531 

" Sir, I make no threats ; but I tell the gentlemen on the other side 
of this House, plainly, as it is my solemn duty to do, as the represen- 
tative of a hundred thousand freemen upon this floor, that we submit 
to no further aggressions upon us, ' there is a point beyond which 
forbearance ceases to be a virtue,' and that, for the future, ' we tread no 
steps backward.' We are done, gentlemen, with compromises. All 
that have been made you forced upon us ; and while we have observed 
them in good faith, you have shamelessly disregarded and trampled 
them under foot. I hold up before you the Constitution as it came 
from the hands of its immortal authors, Northern and Southern men — 
itself a compromise ; we claim our rights under that, and we intend to 
have them." * 

In this connection it may be well to lay before the reader the 
opinions of Mr. Jefferson in relation to the dangers of the creation 
of sectional issues, and the domineering spirit of New England fed- 
eralism. We copy from the Political Text-Book, page 336 : 

" In reference to the Missouri Compromise, Mr. Jefferson said : 

" ' The question is a mere party trick. The leaders of federalism, 
defeated in their schemes of obtaining power by rallying partisans to 
the principle of monarchism — a principle of personal, not of local 
division — have changed their tact and thrown out another barrel to 
the whale. They are taking advantage of the virtuous feeling of the 
people to effect a division of parties by a geographical line ; they ex- 
pect that this will insure them, on local principles, the majority they 
could never obtain on principles of federalism ; but they are still put- 
ting their shoulders to the wrong wheel ; they are wasting jeremiads 
on the miseries of slavery, as if we were advocates of it. Sincerity 
in their declamations should direct their efforts to the true point of 
difficulty, and unite their councils with ours in devising some reason- 
able and practical plan of getting rid of it.' f 

" In a letter to Mr. Adams, dated Jan. 22, 1821, Mr. Jefferson 
says : 

"'Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question. 
What does the holy alliance, in and out of Congress, mean to do with 
us on the Missouri question ? And this, by the way, is but the name 

* Political Text-Book, p. 605. t Jefferson's Writings, vol. 7. 



532 PULPIT POLITICS. 

of the case; it is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the ejectment. 
The real question, as seen in the States afflicted with this unfortunate 
population, is. Are our slaves to be presented with freedom and a 
dagger ? For, if Congress has the power to regulate the conditions 
of the inhabitants of the States within the States, it will be but an- 
other exercise of that power to declare that all shall be free. Are 
we, then, to see again Athenian and Lacedaemonian confederacies J* 
To wage another Peloponnesian war to settle the ascendancy between 
them? Or is this the tocsin of merely a servile war? That remains 
to be seen; but I hope not by you or me. Surely they will parley 
awhile and give us time to get out of the way. What a bedlamite 
is man ! ' 

" In a letter to Lafayette, dated Nov. 4, 1823, Mr. Jefferson 
said : — 

" 'On the eclipse of federalism with us, although not its extinction, 
its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the false front of 
lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view of producing 
a geographical division of parties, which might insure them the next 
President. The people of the North went blindfold into the snare, 
and followed their leaders for awhile with a zeal ti-uly moral and laud- 
able, until they became sensible that they were injuring instead of 
aiding the real interests of the slaves ; that they had been used 
merely as tools for electioneering purposes, and that trick of hypocrisy 
then fell as qu'ckly as it had been got up.' 

"In a letter to Mr. Short, dated April 13, 1820, Mr. Jefferson 
said : — 

'"Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write, 
talk, or even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and 
had, therefore, ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question 
aroused and filled me with alarm. The old schism of Federal and 
Republican threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and 
united them together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence 
of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, 
once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the 
mind ; that it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing 
irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to 
rtfcder separation preferable to eternal discord. I have been among 
the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long du- 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 533 

ration. I now doubt it mueli, and see the event at no great distance, 
and the direct consequence of this question ; not by the line which 
has been so confidently counted on — the laws of nature control this — • 
but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri, or more probably the Mis- 
sissippi, upward to our northern boundary. My only comfort and 
consolation is, that I shall not live to see it ; and I envy not the 
present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of their 
fathers' sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate the 
experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable 
of self-government. This treason against human hope will signalize 
their epoch in future history as the counterpart of the model of their 
predecessors.' 

" ' I thank you, my dear sir, for the copy you have been so kind as 
to send me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri ques- 
tion. , . . But this momentous question, like a fire-bell in the 
night, awakened me and filled me with terror. I considered it at 
once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the mo- 
ment; but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geograph- 
ical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once 
conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be 
obliterated ; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. 
. . . If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they 
will throw away, against an abstract principle, more likely to be 
etiected by union than by scission, they would pause before they could 
perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason against 
the hopes of the world.' * 

" ' I am indebted to you for your two letters of Feb. 7th and 19th. 
The Missouri question, by a geographical line of division, is the most 
portentous one I ever contemplated ; * * ^' is ready to risk the 
Union for any chance of restoring his party to power, and wriggling 
himself to the head of it ; nor is * * '^ without his hopes, nor 
e<^rupulous as to the means of fulfilling them.' f 

'' ' The banks, bankrupt laws, manufactures, Spanish treaty, are 
nothing. These are occurrences which, like waves in a storm, will 
pass under the ship, but the Missouri question is a breaker on which 
re lose the Missouri country by revolt, and what more, God only 

* Letter to Jno. Holmes, dated Monticello, April 22, 1820. 
r Letter to Mr. Madison. 



534 PULPIT POLITICS. 

knows. From tlie battle of Bunker's Hill, to the treaty of Pans, we 
never had so ominous a question. It even damps the joy with which 
I hear of- your high health, and welcomes to me the want of it. I 
thank God I shall not live to witness its issue.' * 

'■ ' The line of division lately marked out between difl'ereut portions 
of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear, be obliterated, and 
we are now trusting to those who are against us in position and prin- 
ciple, to fashion to their own form the minds and affections of our 
youth. If, as has been estimated, we send three hundred thousand 
dollars a year to the northern seminaries for the instruction of our 
own sons, then we must have five hundred of our sons imbibing opin- 
ions and principles in discord with those of their own country. This 
canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and, if not arrested 
at once, will be beyond remedy.' f 

" ' The Missouri question is the most portentous one which ever 
yet threatened our Union. In the gloomiest moment of the Kevolu- 
tionary War, I never had any apprehension equal to that I felt from 
this source.' " X 

What Mr. Jefferson perceived in the distant future, Mr. Clay, 
twenty years afterward, saw as rapidly approacliing. In address- 
ing Rev. Walter Colton, his biographer, Mr. Clay expressed his 
opinions, in relation to abolitionism, as follows : 

" AsHLAXD, Sept. 2, 1843. 

" J/y I)far Sir : — Allow me to select a subject for one of your tracts, 
which, treated in your popular and condensed way, I think would be 
attended with great and good effect. I mean abolition. 

" It is manifest that the ultras of that party are extremely mischiev- 
ous, and are hurrying on the country to fearful consequences. They 
are not to be conciliated by the Whigs. Engrossed with a single idea, 
they care for nothing else. They would see the administration of the 
Government precipitate the nation into absolute ruin before they would 
lend a helping hand to arrest its career. They treat worse, and de- 
nounce most, those wh^ treat them best, who so far agree with them 
as to admit slavery to be an evil. Witness their conduct toward Mr. 
Briggs and Mr. Adams, in Massachusetts, and toward me. 



* Letter to John Adams, December 10, 1819. 

t Letter to General Breckenridge. February 11, 1821. 

% Letter to Mr. Monroe, March 3. 1820. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 535 

" I will give you an outline of tlie manner in wliicli I would handle 
it : Show the origin of slavery. Trace its introduction to the British 
Government. Show how it is disposed of by the Federal Constitution ; 
that it is left exclusively to the States, except in regard to fugitives, 
direct taxes, and representation. Show that the agitation of the ques- 
tion, in the free States, will first destroy all harmony, and finally lead 
to disunion — perpetual war — the extermination of the African race — 
ultimate military despotism. 

" But the great aim and object of your tract should be to arouse the 
laboring classes in the free States against abolition. Depict the con- 
sequences to them of immediate abolition. The slaves, being free, 
would be dispersed throughout the Union ; they would enter into com- 
petition with the free laborer — with the American, the Irish, the Ger- 
man — reduce his wages, he confounded with him, and affect his moral and 
social standing. And as the ultras go both for abolitionism and amal- 
gamation, show that their object is to unite in marriage the laboring 
white man and the laboring black woman, to reduce the white labor- 
ing man to the despised and degraded condition of the black man. 

"I would show their opposition to colonization. Show its humane, 
religious, and patriotic aim. That they are those whom God has sep- 
arated. Why do abolitionists oppose colonization? To keep and 
amalgamate together the two races, in violation of God's will, and to 
keep the blacks here, that they may interfere with, degrade, and de- 
base the laboring whites. Show that the British Government is co- 
operating with the abolitionists for the purpose of dissolving the 
Union, etc. You can make a powerful article, that will be felt in 
every extremity of the Union. I am perfectly satisfied it will do 
great good. Let me hear from you on this subject. 

" IIjknry Clay." 

But we must pass on. The year 1859 found the prevailing 
excitement on the negro question quickened into new life, by the 
attempt of John Brown to raise a negro insurrection in Virginia; 
and his execution, near the close of the year, producing at the 
North many strong manifestations of sympathy for himself and 
the cause he had espoused, was the occasion of fresh alarm at the 
South. 

And w as there not cause for alarm ? One class of politicians 
had declared their intention to proclaim emancipation whenever 
a servile insurrection should occur, or a civil war break out. 



536 PULPIT POLITICS. 

John Brown had attempted to accomplish the task of arousing 
the shives ; and in the North his death was pronounced that of a 
martyr to a holy cause, and every token of respect shown to his 
memory in many pulpits, and in one legislative hall.* The 
courts of justice, too, in at least one case, were adjourned on the 
day of his execution, to signify an approval of his conduct. f 

The abolitionists, having failed in exciting the slaves to insur- 
rection, were still persevering in their attempts to provoke the 
South to acts of rebellion. John Brown had been but the em- 
bodiment of the spirit of this party ; and Joshua R. Giddings had 
identified himself with it, when he thus wrote to the Ashtabula 
Sentinel : 

"We have ourselves paid money to redeem Southern slaves until we 
have become disgusted with the practice, and prefer that our future 
donations shall be made in powder and balls, delivered to the 

SLAVES, TO BE USED AS THEY MAY DEEM PROPER." 

The counter-movements in the South, to guard against the 
schemes of the abolitionists, progressed, from day to day, until 
it became evident that the safety of the Union was endangered. 
Reflecting men, both North and South, began to take the alarm, 
and to devise measures for the removal of the causes Avhich 
threatened such a dreadful calamity. 

And here, as elsewhere, we shall not attempt to trace with 
regularity the proceedings of the actors in this drama, because 
we wish to avoid coming into contact with the movements of 
political parties. This much, however, we can say, that the 
great majority of the two leading parties — Republican and Demo- 
crat — were determinedly hostile to a dissolution of the Union. 
But the Republicans, at the North, were powerless, except by the 
abolition vote ; and the abolitionists, believing they had now 

* Massachusetts. 

t The court at Akron, Ohio, on motion of Attorney-General Wolcott, was 
adjourned on the day of the execution of John Brown, as a mark of respect 
to him, and of sympathy for the cause in which he lost his life. And what 
makes this latter case the more marked is, that Mr. Wolcott was afterward 
appointed a member of the Peace Congress, at "Washington, by the Governor 
of Ohio, and aided in defeating the compromise of the national difficulties. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL AVAR, 537 

worked up tlie country to a point when a collision could be pro- 
duced, and slavery abolished, were determined to push matters to 
the last extremity, and bring on the long-wished-for crisis. The 
Democrats, on the other hand, could not elect their candidate ex- 
cepting by the united vote of the South. Less fortunate than the 
Republicans, they could not secure that united vote — could not 
affiliate with the secession party — and were, therefore, defeated. 
The event proved that the abolitionists held the balance of power 
at the North. 

It does not fall in with our plan to give any detailed statements 
as to the views of the President upon the subject of slavery. 
That they have been conservative, in the main, appears from the 
assaults made upon him by the ultra abolitionists, immediately 
after his election. The New York Times, November 9, 1860, in 
noticing a speech of Wendell Phillips, in Boston, says : 

" It is one of Mr. Phillips's sharpest and most stinging diatribes. 
Every sentence hisses with malignant scorn and indignation. Lin- 
coln, Seward, Banks, and all the practical statesmen who concur in, 
their opinions, are branded as traitors and hypocrites. . . . It is 
scarcely necessary to say, that the grounds on which Mr. Phillips de- 
nounces Mr. Lincoln are precisely those on which the country bases 
its hopes that he will have a successful and beneficent administration. 
Whatever Mr. Phillips may do, a President of the United States can 
not ignore the Constitution, nor disregard or evade its requisitions. 
Whatever he may think of slavery, he must recognize its existence in 
States over whose domestic affairs the Federal Government has no 
control, and give full weight to the rights and interests of those whose 
fortunes are identified with it. Mr. Phillips, some time since, paid 
Mr. Sumner the very damning compliment of saying that he thought 
him incapable of keeping the oath he had taken to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States. We are very glad to find that he has 
no such praise in store for Mr. Lincoln. He does him nothing more 
than justice in denouncing his purpose to abide by the Constitution 
in all its parts." 



That the Republican party at large were very anxious to 
it understood that Mr, Lincoln would occupy national ground 
the administration of the Government, is further apparent fr 



lave 
in 



538 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the remarks of Hon. Horace Greeley, at a Republican mass meet- 
ing, in New York City, on the evening of November 8, 1860, 
when the election of Mr. Lincoln had been ascertained. He said: 

" It was not the fault of the Republican party if they had not been 
allowed to proclaim their principles in all sections of the country. 
Had they been thus allowed, the South would have been disabused of 
their errors in regard to the party, and he believed they could have 
fairly challenged the support of a majority of Southern men. As it 
was, he believed that when they come to be better understood, as they 
would be after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, their measures would 
be cheerfully acquiesced in by all the moderate men of the South."* 

But these conservative views, attributed, we believe, justly, to 
Mr. Lincoln, did not stand alone among Republicans, or they 
would have contributed to the preservation of the peace of the 
country. At this very same meeting, William Cullen Bryant, 
who acted as chairman, and who was one of the electors on the 
Republican ticket, on taking the chair said : 

" That they had met to-night to celebrate one of the most import- 
ant moral and political victories that had ever been achieved. The 
youngest of his hearers might live till the next century, and not wit- 
ness another election so pregnant with great results as the one through 
which they had just passed. And, best of all, they had triumphed. 
[Applause."] The enemy was conquered. At their feet lay the carcass 
of that odious slave oligarchy, which, for so long a period, had ruled 
our country, ruled Northern men, and tyrannized over both. [Tre- 
mendous applause.] And they, the young men he saAV before him, 
had aided in dealing that terrible blow, which had, at length, struck 
the creature to the earth. [Renewed applause.] There it lay before 
them, dismembered, lifeless, dead, and I'rom that death there was no 
resurrection. [A voice — ' Thaulc the Lord !']."t 

Thus, while conservative men in the Republican party were 
rejoicing over the election of a President who, in their opinion, 
would sustain the compromises of the Constitution, there were 
others, in that same party, who took a very different view of the 

» New York Times, November 9, 1860. t Ibid. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 539 

effects of the election. Mr. Brjai'it may be taken as one of tlie 
opposite class, who anticipated the entire extirpation of slavery 
through the agency of Mr. Lincoln. The truth is, that the abo- 
litionists were now resolved to reap the harvest they had been 
so long engaged in sowing. 

On the other hand, South Carolina Avas equally determined to 
carry out at once her long-cherished policy of secession. Her 
politicians believed that compromises were no longer practicable, 
as they could not be relied upon to secure the objects for which 
they stipulated. The Constitution itself had been a compro- 
mise, and yet, in some of its provisions, it had been repudi- 
ated, not only by political parties, but by States. The parties 
claiming that slavery was unconstitutional, held the balance of 
poAver at the North, and, it Avas believed, could control the in- 
coming administration. South Carolina, therefore, persuaded 
herself that secession was the only saieguard for her institutions, 
and that, sooner or later, she must resort to that remedy ; and 
that the longer it was deferred, the worse it would be for the 
whole South. The North, by foreign immigration, was, year by 
year, growing stronger and stronger ; while the South, having 
only its natural increase, was by no means able to keep up its 
numerical strength to an equality with the North. The longer 
the delay, therefore, the less the chances of success — the less 
the ability of the South to resist the aggressions of the North 
upon its institutions. 

Here, now, stood the champions in this conflict. South CarO' 
lina, determined on secession as the only means of protecting 
her slave property, was arrayed on the one side. Ncav England, 
determined on the extinction of slavery, or the dissolution of the 
Union, stood upon the other. 

But South Carolina stood alone — the other slave States believ- 
ing that their rights could be best secured under the Constitution 
and in the Union. As, however, it had been denied at the North 
that slaveholders liad the same constitutional' rights, as to prop- 
erty, which the non-slaveholders possessed, they demanded that 
proper guarantees should be given, so that, hereafter, no inter- 
ference with slavery should be attempted. Accordingly, the 



540 PULPIT POLITICS. 

propositions were brought forward as a peace measure, which 
afterward took the name of the " Crittenden Compromise." 
But Congress failed to secure the necessary vote to carry this 
compromise. The "Peace Congress" was equally unsuccess- 
ful. Conservative men of both parties — Republicans and Demo- 
crats — tremblingly alive to the necessity of settling the contro- 
versy, and averting the impending civil war — united in entreating 
South Carolina to stay her incendiary hand, and not to apply 
the torch to the edifice which had cost, for its erection, the toil 
and the blood of their patriot fathers. They appealed, also, with 
equal fervor, to the fanatical abolitionist, to relax his zeal in a 
cause that must end in the ruin of the race he would benefit, as 
well as the destruction of the only free government on earth. 
But, no ! Carolina stood ready to light the flame : the abolition- 
ist, holding the legal control of the issue in his grasp, refused 
the guarantee to the South, and called for the efi'usion of blood. 

We are not judging harshly. At the moment when it was 
thought that the " Peace Congress " might adopt measures to 
restore the Union, and prevent war, and when Michigan held 
back, and would not send delegates to that body. Senator Chand- 
ler wrote to Governor Blair, of that State, urging that the Legis- 
lature would retrace its steps, and at once send on its delegates. 
The folloAving is his letter, and no other conclusion can be drawn 
than that the object was to prevent the passage of any compro- 
mise measures, so that civil war might be precipitated upon the 
country : 

"Washingtov, February 11, 18G1. 

'^^ My Dear Governor: — Governor Bingham and myself telegraphed 
you on Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York, to 
send delegates to the Peace or Compromise Congress. They admit 
that we are right, and they wrong ; that no Piepublican State should 
have sent delegates ; but they are here, and can't get away. Ohio, In- 
diana, and Rhode Island are caving in, and there is danger of Illinois, 
and now they beg us, for God's sake, to come to their rescue, and save 
the Republican party from rupture. I hope you will send stiff-hacked 
men, or none. The whole thing was got up against my judgment and 
advice, and will end in thick smoke. Still, I hope, as a matter of 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 541 

courtesy to some of our erring brethren, that you will send the dele- 
gates. Truly, your friend, Z. CHANDLER. 
" His Excellency, Austin Blair. 

" P. S. — Some of the manufacturing States think that a fight would 
be AWFUL. Without a little hlood-letting^ this Union xoill not, in my 
estimation, he worth a rush." 

That a compromise would have been effected, and that the 
whole South would have accepted it, save South Carolina only, 
and the Union have been maintained, by the adoption of some 
one of the compromises proposed, is a truth that can not be 
disputed, and that was not denied when it was asserted upon the 
floor of Congress. Hear Mr. Douglas, in his speech in the 
Senate, January 3d, 1861, when urging the adoption of his com- 
promise : 

" I believe this to be a fi^ir basi.s of amicable adjustment. If you 
of the Republican side are not willing to accept this, nor the propo- 
sition of the Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. Crittenden,] pray tell us 
tvhat you are willing to do ? I address the inquiry to the Republicans 
alone, /or the reason that, in the Committee of Thirteen, a few days ago, 
every member from the South, including those from the cotton Slates, 
[Messrs. Toombs and Davis,] expressed their readiness to accept the 
proposition of my venerable friend from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden] as 
a final settlement of the controversy, if tendered and sustained by the 
Republican members. Hence, the sole responsibility of our disagree- 
ment, and the only difficulty in the way of an amicable adjustment is 
loith the Republican party.'' 

Again, we have the testimony of another Senator, Mr. Pugh, 
in his speech, March 2d, 1861, upon the Corwin resolution to 
amend the Constitution of the United States. He said : 

" The Crittenden proposition has been indorsed by the almost unan- 
imous vote of the Legislature of Kentucky. It has been indorsed by 
the Legislature of the noble old commonwealth of Virginia. It has been 
petitioned for by a larger number of electors of the United States than 
any proposition that was ever before Congress. I believe, in my heart, 
to-day, that it would carry an overwhelming majority of the people 
of my State ; ay, sir, and of nearly every other State in the Union. 



642 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Before the Senators from the State of Mississippi left thi$ chamber, I 
heard one of them, who now assumes, at least, to he President of the 
Southern Confederacy, propose to accept it, and to maintain the Union 
if that proposition could receive the vote it ought to receive from the 
other side of the chamber. Therefore, of all your propositions, of all 
your amendments, knowing, as I do, and knowing that the historian 
■will write it doicn, at any time before the first of January, a tico-thirds 
vote for the Crittenden resolutions, in this chamber, would have saved 
every State in the Union but South Carolina." 

These declarations were made in the hearing of Messrs 
Seward, Wade, Fessenden, Trumbull, and all the Republican 
Senators, none of whom denied their truth ; and Mr. Douglas 
also heard it, and confirmed its truth thus : 

" The Senator has said, that if the Crittenden proposition could have 
passed early in the session, it woidd have saved all the States ctcept 
South Carolina. I firmly believe it would. While the Crittenden pro- 
position was not in accordaiuo with my cherished views, I avowed my 
readiness and eagerness to :n«.ept it, in order to save the Union, if we 
could unite upon it. No man has. labored harder than I have to get 
it passed. / can confirm the Senators declaration, that Senator Davis 
himself, when on the Committee of Thirteen, teas ready, at all ti7nes, 
to compromise on the Crittenden proposition. I will go farther, and say 
that Mr. Toombs was also." 

But if more is wanting to prove that the South would have 
accepted the Crittenden Compromise, we have it in the language 
of Mr. Toombs himself, who, in his speech in the United States 
Senate, January 7, 1861, said: 

"But although I insist upon this perfect equality, yet, when it was 
proposed — as I understand the Senator from Kentucky now proposes — 
that the line of 36° 30' shall be extended, acknowledging and protect- 
ing our property on the south side of the line, for the sake of peace — 
permanent peace, I said to the Committee of Thirteen, and I say here, 
with other satisfactory provisions, I would accept it." 

The arrival of new delegates to the Peace Congress, upon the 
appeal made to the States not represented, placed the conserv- 
ative Republicans and Democrats in a position which rendered 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPIIWTING CIVIL WAR. 548 

them powerless for good. No compromise could be effected; and 
the die Avas then cast. The South had demanded protection or 
dissolution : the protection being refused, dissolution was at- 
tempted. 

But there is another act in tlie drama, which must be noticed 
briefly, in order to have a better understanding of the causes 
contributing to our present national distress. Hon. Andrew 
Johnson, of Tennessee, had charged upon the anti-slavery men 
of the North the formation of a conspiracy to dissolve the Union. 
The right of secession had been claimed by Mr. Quincy, of Boston, 
in 1811 ; by J. Q. Adams, in 1838 and 1839 ; and by many other 
Northern men. As the present crisis approached, or toward the 
close of 1860, and after the Presidential election, one of the lead- 
ing anti-slavery papers, and its editor a representative man among 
abolitionists, gave utterance to the following sentiments, perbaps 
as a lure to lead the South to hope that peaceful secession was 
practicable : 

" If the cotton States consider the value of the Union debatable, we 
maintain their perfect right to disc-uss it. Nay, we hold with Jefferson, 
to the inalienable right of communities to alter or abolish forms of 
government that have become oppressive or injurious ; and if the cot- 
ton States shall become satisfied that they can do better out of the 
Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. The right to 
secede may be a revolutionary one, bict it exists, nevertheless; and we 
do not see how one party can have a right to do what another party 
has a right to prevent. We must ever resist the asserted right of any 
State to remain in the Union and nullify or defy the laws thereof; to 
withdraw from the Union is quite another matter. And whenever a 
considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, 
we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope 
never to live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue 
by bayonets."* 

"If the cotton States unitedly and earnestly wisli to withdraw 
peacefully from the Union, we think they should and would be allowed 
to do so. Any attempt to compel them, by force^ to remain, would be 
contrary to the principles enunciated in the immortal Declaration of 

*New York Tribune, Nov. 9, 1860. 



544 PULPIT POLITICS. 

ludepemlence — contrary to the fundamental ideas on which Humai 
Liberty is based."* 

" If the people of seven or eight contiguous States shall pretty unaui 
mously resolve to secede and set up for themselves, we think they 
would do so, and that it would he most unwise to undertake tc resist 
such secession hy Federal force. Why is it that those who want to 
enforce this doctrine make their attack on something else ?"-j 

South Carolina opened her guns upon Fort Sumter, and a shout 
of exultation arose from the abolitionist. Listen to the Anii- 
slavery Standard, sounding the glad tidings over tht land, and 
glorying in its treason to the Constitution : 

" For the last ten years, yea, eleven, next seventeentti ol March, the 
Hunkerdom of the North has been engaged in a constant efibrt to save 
the Union. The abolitionism of the North has been all the time busy 
in the opposite direction, trying to break it up. Well, toe have beaten — 
the Union is dissolved, in spite of the Hunkers. It is nothing odd that 
they should rage and imagine strange things. Nobody likes to be 
licked. That is just what they are. Let us be patient with them, 
and let them expend their froth and fury. Better times are at hand, 
and all the nearer, the worse they behave. One thing is certain, the 
Union is dissolved." 

The unceasing efforts of the abolitionists to secure emancipa- 
tion by military proclamation, and their attacks upon every one — 
the President not excepted — who stood in the way of the execu- 
tion of their policy, can now be understood. But in what way 
can we reconcile the declarations of Mr. Greeley, in favor of peace- 
ful secession before the war, with his ferocious denunciations of 
the secessionists since its commencement, and his desire that the 
war shall be one of utter ruin to the South, excepting upon the 
theory of Senator Johnson, that there existed a conspiracy to 
effect a dissolution of the Union ? Hear him, shortly after the war 
had commenced : 

" Therefore shall we imitate the South no more in war than in peace. 
But, nevertheless, we mean to conquer them — not merely to defeat, 
but to conquer, to SUBJUGATE them — and we shall do this the most 

» New York Tribune, Nov. 26. t Ibid., Dec. 10. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 545 

mercifully the more speedily we do it. But when the rebellious 
traitors are overwhelmed in the field, and scattered like leaves before 
an angry wind, it must not be to return to peaceful and contented 
homes. They must find poverty at their firesides, and see privation 
in the anxious eyes of mothers, and the rags of children." 

Mr. Greeley's language to the South, before its rebellion, was 
practically this : " Go on and secede, we do not longer want you, 
and we shall not molest you." But no sooner had the secession 
flag been fairly unfurled, than he calls for the direst vengeance 
to be executed upon all its inhabitants, mothers and children not 
excepted. 

About the same time that Mr. Greeley called for destruction to 
the traitors, the Neiv York Indvpendenf, the paper of Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher, used the following language : 

" The grand result — the only solution of the question — is fost 
coming up — the emancipation of the slaves by the nation. What other 
escape is there from our difficulties ? Why should not our people and 
our statesmen look it fair in the foce ? The South is far stronger and 
better supplied than we suppose. She is in earnest. She believes her- 
self bitterly wronged. She is not likely to think herself less so after 
1 blockade and a campaign. She is encouraged by the base sympathy 
of England. She never could feel any surety for slavery in another 

Union with us. She hates vs Evidently there is but 

one path to safety and victory — one to a permanent settlement — one 
to the quiet or subjugation of the South. Do not fear it! Look it 
boldly in the face — namely : the emancipation of the slaves. 

" Let our armies, as a ' militai-y necessity ' and strategical act, de- 
clare ' freedom ' to all, and in a moment we have an army of four 
million human beings on our side — allies in every house and on every 
plantation. The enemy is demoralized. Panic sweeps through the 
Southern land. Here is a foe more dreadful than Northern armies. 
Fighting so near our own forces, we may hope the revengeful feelings 
of these poor oppressed creatures would be restrained. Still, there 
would inevitably be desolation and destruction sweeping like a tempest 
over the Southern land. A7id it xoould he just. These men have borne 
the wrongs of centuries, and why should not their uprising he hloochj? 
Let them have their freedom, if they can win it, even though it be 
over the corpses of their masters and the ashes of the ruined home- 
35 



546 ' PULPIT POLITICS. 

steads. After this tempest of fire and havoc, would arise a better era 
for the South. Free laborers would pour in ; wasted fields would be 
cultivated by new hands ; ruined cities would be built up by Northern 
capital and ingenuity, and the problem and the task for the civiliza- 
tion of the coming age would be the education and preparation of 
4,000,000 of blacks — perhaps through some system of apprenticeship, 
for the rights and the privileges of free laborers. 

" For such a glorious result, even if it come through tears and blood, 
do ice devoutly pray y 

It would be an onerous task, indeed, to "copy all the outpour- 
ings of the gall and the wormwood of clerical abolitionists, on the 
(|uestion of the subjugation of the South as a means of emanci- 
pation. One or two only need be presented. The American 
Reform Tract and Book Society,* an abolition association in 
Cincinnati, in one of its Occasional Tracts, (No. 5,) undertakes 
thus to frighten the Government into emancipation, by declaring 
what is the will and purposes of the Almighty in the present con- 
dition of the country : 

" We shall fall Ixfore the rebels until the nation act as He demands 
at our hands. Defeat will attend our arms, corruption and misman- 
agement our affairs, destruction brood the nation, the history of Pha- 
raoh and Egypt be ours, unless we yield thus to His will. 

" Then let the decree go forth from the nation, through its authori- 
ties ; in obedience to the "Word, and Spirit, and Providence of God ; 
in compliance with the enlightened sentiment of the civilized world ; 
in response to the moral convictions of our own people ; in answer 
to the emphatic demands of Public Safety, and in clear conformity 
with a just Public Integrity — the decree that 'This Slaveholding 
Interest, being in rebellion against the nation, and threat- 
ening IT WITH DESTRUCTION, SHALL NO LONGER HAVE PROTECTION 
UNDER THE NATIONAL LAWS ; BUT IS FOREVER OUTLAWED AS A PUB- 
LIC ENEMY ; AND SLAVEHOLDING HENCEFORTH EXCLUDED WHEREVER 
THE NATIONAL POWER EXTENDS.' " 

Another Occasional Tract, (No. 6,) printed by the same society, 
and delivered as a sermon by the pastor of the Ninth Street 

* This Society and its tracts have been recommended by the General Assem- 
bly of the United Presbyterian Church. 



MOVEMENTS PRECIPITATING CIVIL WAR. 547 

Baptist Church, Cincinnati, December 8th, 1861, contains the 
following diabolical utterance : 

" Let every city be razed to the ground, swept, sacked, iind burned — 
let Washington, Baltimore, New York, Cincinnati and St. Louis lie 
in ashes, rather than we yield, or reconstruct, or Compromise : for 
now there is no compromise except in yielding." 

We leave the reader to judge of the motives of Northern poli- 
ticians, in first advocating the right of secession, and then de- 
manding coercion, as soon as that right was asserted by the 
South. lu the quotations made, the opinion is openly avowed 
that abolitionism was necessary to preserve the balance of the 
Constitution; and that, in the event of that balance being made 
to turn in behalf of the South, by the extension of slavery, the 
North would dissolve the Union. These oft-repeated threats, on 
the part of Northern politicians, were equally as criminal as any 
similar ones ever made at the South, so long as nothing but 
threats w^ere employed. They were conditional on both sides ; 
those of the North threatening a withdrawal from the Union, 
should slavery be extended ; those of the South threatening the 
same course of action, should any attempt be made either to de- 
stroy or limit that institution. Both parties acted in a criminal 
manner, because such threats were familiarizing the people to 
the idea of the dissolution of the Union ; and in allowing the 
parties using them to escape the most withering rebuke, scorn, 
contempt, indignation, has been the great sin of conservative men 
upon both sides of Mason's and Dixon's Line. The only differ- 
ence between these parties wdio talked so daringly about disunion, 
is, that while it was mainly employed as mere bimkum, for poli- 
tical effect, at the North, it was no unmeaning phrase at the 
South. There, the value of property, the peace and safety of 
society, the lives of wives and children, Avere involved in the 
issue of the controversy which the secessionists of the South 
held with the disunionists of the North. They were terribly in 
earnest, and, under such goadings as those quoted from Gid- 
dings and others, they have had the courage to carry out their 
threats into actual treason; and are now suffering the penalty 



548 PULPIT POLITICS. 

justly due to the enormity of the offense they have com- 
mitted. Had they waited, the conservative men of the North 
would have forced Congress to give them the guarantees they de- 
manded under the Constitution. Of this there can be no question. 

But they are not suffering alone. We have more than once 
referred to the fact, that the conservative men of the country are 
responsible for the calamities brought upon the nation, by the 
opposing sectional factions who have used the slavery question 
as a means of promoting sectional interests. The penalty for 
their remissness is now being visited upon them ; and these con- 
servative men are at last aroused to a sense of the dangers that 
surround them, but which should have been prevented by them. 
They are at last taking a just view of the dangers of abolition- 
ism, whether it presents itself in the pulpit, the press, or the 
ecclesiastical council. The disturbing influences of " pulpit poli- 
tics," Avhether ringing from Southern pulpits in support of slav- 
ery, or from those of the North against it, have overwhelmed 
them in a mighty struggle to preserve the Constitution and the 
Union, and they are freely offering their property, their blood, 
their lives, to consummate that object. And when that task is 
done, they will have learned a more striking lesson than did the 
nation of Israel, under King David, when the three years of fam- 
ine fell upon the land, as a judgment for the violation of its 
covenant with the Gibeonites, made centuries before the violation 
occurred.* And, here, we would remark, that it seems never to 
have occurred to the minds of the demagogues among the clergy, 
to study the history of the Gibeonites, and there to learn that 
covenants between peoples must be sacredly kept ; because 
Heaven takes cognizance of the violation of covenant engage- 
ments among men. 

But we must not pursue this subject. The roar of cannon 
sounding in our ears, the noise of the rush of armed men to the 
battle, the cries of the wounded, the groans of the dying, the 
tears and Availing of the widow and the orphan forbid it ! A di'ead- 
ful responsibility, before high Heaven, rests upon the authors of 
these woes. 

* II Samuel, chapter 21. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE COTTON CROP IN ITS RELATIONS TO AMERICAN COMMERCE. 

Much misconception has existed in the United States in refer- 
ence to the question of the production and supply of cotton, and 
much misrepresentation, in relation to the facts in the case, has 
been set afloat through the medium of the press. Were we to 
pass this subject without notice, our investigations would be in- 
complete. In entering upon its examination, a historical review 
of the movements of Great Britain will best serve to exhibit the 
true relations which the American cotton planter has sustained to 
the cultivation of this commodity throughout the world. 

Section I. — Early movements of Great Britain to retrieve 

HER LOSSES CONSEQUENT UPON WeST InDIA EMANCIPATION. 

The death blow to cotton cultivation in the British West Indies 
was given by the act abolishing the slave trade. At the begin- 
ning of the present century the exports of cotton from these 
islands nearly equaled that from the United States — the one 
exporting 17,000,000 lbs., the other 17,780,000 lbs. But upon 
the suppression of the slave trade, and the consequent diminution 
of labor in the islands, its cultivation began to decline, so that, by 
1834, when the emancipation act went into operation, it had dimin- 
ished to 2,296,525 lbs. This enormous decline in cotton culture, 
in the West Indies, was a source of great alarm to British manu- 
facturers. Emancipation was expected to remedy this great mis- 
fortune, on the principle that the labor of the negroes, when free, 
would be much more productive than it had been while they were 
slaves. This was the British theory of that day, as to the benefi- 
cial effects of emancipation ; upon this theory Parliament based 
its act for the abolition of West India slavery ; and, as a conse- 
quence of this act, the English people confidently anticipated an 

(o49) 



550 PULPIT POLITICS. 

enlarged production of all the commodities usually cultivated in 
the islands. 

Even as late as 1839 this theory was still held as true, as ap- 
pears from an address delivered in Boston, by Mr. Scoble, a gen- 
tleman who had been secretary of the British and Foreign Anti- 
Slavery Society, which we find noticed in the Christian Watchman 
of that year. * Mr. Scoble had recently visited the West Indies, 
and professed to speak from actual observation. He represented 
the prosperity of the islands as on the increase, and this he " ac- 
counted for by saying that one free laborer would do more than 
two slaves." 

All this, it is now well understood, was mere bunkum, designed 
to influence the people of the United States to follow the example 
of England in abolishing slavery. iEsop would have illustrated 
the designs of Mr. Scoble by his fable of the fox that lost his tail 
in the trap, and who urged upon a convention of other foxes the 
great convenience he experienced in having that bushy appendage 
out of the way. 

The year 1839, in which Mr, Scoble came over to instruct us as 
to the benefits of emancipation, found the West Indies exporting 
but 928,425 pounds of cotton, and the year 1840 but 427,529 
pounds as against 17,000,000 exported in 1800. Cotton cultiva- 
tion was about at an end in the West Indies. The labor neces- 
sary for its production could not be commanded ; and, even if it 
had been in sufficient abundance, pi'ices had so fallen, in conse- 
quence of the immense production of the United States, then 
equaling, for export alone, 743,941,000 pounds that year, (1840,) 
that attractive wages could not be offered to the newly emanci- 
pated blacks. 

The American planter had the monopoly of the supply of cotton 
to the markets of the Christian world ; and the West India planter 
as far as he could command labor, chose to employ it in the pro- 
duction of sugar rather than upon cotton. This left the British 
manufacturer at the mercy of the slaveholder of the United States 
for bis su])plies of that commodity — a position that he chose not 
to occupy a moment longer than it could be avoided. We find, 

* The article is quoted iu the Christiau Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, Octo- 
ber, 1839, page 284. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 551 

accordingly, that at the same time that Mr. Scoble was telling the 
American people about the increasing prosperity of the West 
Indies, and the greater efficiency of the free negro over the slave, 
a movement was set on foot, in England, to transfer the seat of 
cotton cultivation to the East Indies. George Thompson, Esq., 
the Abolitionist, was placed in the foreground in this movement, 
and, during 1839, in a course of lectures, undertook to prove that 
all the elements of successful cotton cultivation existed in India : 
and that the English people might soon obtain their supplies of 
cotton from that country, and thus be enabled to repudiate that 
of the United States. The appeal was made to Parliament to ex- 
tend a helping hand to cotton culture in the East Indies ; and 
the object to be gained by the measure proposed was the emanci- 
pation of the slaves of the United States, by destroying the 
markets for its cotton. In one of his lectures he thus exclaims : 

" The battle-ground of freedom for the world is on the plains of 
Hindostan. Yes, my friends, do justice to India; wave there the 
scepter of justice, aud the rod of oppression falls from the hands 
of the slaveholder in America; and the slave, swelling beyond the 
measure of his chains, stands disenthralled, a free man and an acknowl- 
edged brother."* 

The introduction to the American edition of the lectures deliv- 
ered by Mr. Thompson, on that occasion, which was written by 
William Lloyd Garrison, contains the following sentences, f They 
sufficiently indicate what were the anticipations of the advocates 
of the measure : 

" If England can raise her own cotton in India, at the paltry rate 
of a penny a pound, what inducement can she have to obtain her sup- 
ply from a rival nation, at a rate six or eight times higher? It is 
stated that the East India free labor costs three pence a day — African 
slave labor two shillings ; that upward of 800,000 bales of cotton are 
exported from the United States annually to England ; and that the 
cotton trade of the United States with England amounts to the enor- 
mous sum of $40,000,000 annually. Let that market be closed to this 

* Lectures of George Thompson, Esq., 1830, page 121. 
t Introduction to Thompson's Lectures, page D, 



Oo2 Pl'LPIT POLITICS. 

slaveholding republic, and its slave system must inevitably perish 
from starvation ! " 

In pursuance of this policy, cotton-seed from the United States 
was sent to India, and experienced planters from Mississippi, at 
high salaries, were employed to superintend its cultivation. But 
the enterprise was not successful, and the Mississipplans, after 
several years' experimenting, returned home to their own planta- 
tions. 

The public are fully informed on this subject, so that the history 
of the enterprise need not be traced at large. 

Paragraphs like the following, from time to time, frequently 
met the eye of the general reader. It is taken from a reliable 
periodical : 

" Late accounts from India, (through the English press.) represent 
that the attempts of the British capitalists, during the last two or 
three years, to cultivate cotton in the district of Dharwar, from which 
much was expected, have signally failed. In ISiT-'-tS, about 20,000 
acres were cultivated. It is now ascertained that the crop has rapidly 
decreased, only 4,000 acres having been under cultivation the past 
year." 

Toward the close of this East India experiment, the London 
Times, under the head of " Cotton in India," said : 

" The one great element of American success — of American enter- 
prise — can never, at least for many generations, be imparted to India. 
It is impossible to expect of Hindoos all that is achieved by citizens 
of the States. During the experiments to which we have alluded, an 
English plow was introduced into one of the provinces, and the natives 
were taught its use and superiority over their own clumsy machinery. 
They were at first astonished and delighted at its effects, but as soon 
as the agent's back was turned, they took it, painted it red, set it up 
on end and worshiped it." 

But this attempt of Great Britain, to secure her supplies of 
cotton from other sources than the United States, does not stand 
alone. Seeing, as if by prophetic forecast, that the attempt to 
cultivate the better qualities of cotton in India would prove a 
failure, a nearly simultaneous effort was made to extend its culti- 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 



553 



vation to Africa. The West Indies, as a field of cotton supply, 
seemed to be closed forever, as a consequence of emancipation. * 
It was the expectation of the British that the United States could 
be made to share the same fiitc, by the success of abolitionism ; 
and that the monopoly of the American planter being thus de- 
stroyed, the price of cotton would necessarily rise, so that it could 
be grown and exported, at a profit, from more distant fields. 

The circumstances which gave rise to the attempt to make Africa 
a field of cotton production are of very great interest, and must 
not be overlooked. They may be briefly given in a few extracts : 

" The following table, extracted from Parliamentary documents, 
presents the average number of slaves exported from Africa to Amer- 
ica, and sold chiefly in Brazil and Cuba, with the per cent, amount of 
loss in the periods designated : 



DATE. 


ANNUAL AVER- 
AGE NUMBER 
EXPORTED. 


AVERACE CASUALTIES OP VOYAGE. 


PER CENT. 


AMOUMT. 


1798 to 1805 


85.000 
85,000 
93,000 
loo, 0(10 
100,0110 
103,000 
125,11110 
7S.5O0 
135,800 


14 
14 
14 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 


12,000 
12,000 
13,000 
26,000 
26,600 
25,800 
31,000 
19,600 
33,900 


1805 to 1810 


1810 to 1815 


1815 to 1817 


1817 to 1819 


1819 to 1825 


1825 to 1830 

1830 to 1835 


1835 to 1810 





" The late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton devoted himself with unwea- 
ried industry to the investigation of the extent and enormities of the 
foreign slave trade. His labors extended through many years, and 
the results, as published in 1840, sent a thrill of horror throughout 
the Christian world. He proved conclusively that the victims to the 
slave trade in Africa amounted annually to 500,000. This included 
the numbers who perish in the seizure of the victims, in the wars of 
the natives upon each other, and the deaths during their march to the 
coast and the detention there before embarkation. This loss he esti- 
mates at one-half, or 500 out of every 1,000. The destruction of life 
during the middle passage he estimates at 25 per cent., or 125 out of 
the remaining 500 of the original 1,000. The mortality after landing 
and in seasoning he shows is 20 per cent., or one-fifth of the 375 sur- 

*The coolie traffic was not then begun, and no means existed, apparently, for 
restoring the islands to their former productiveness. 



554 PULPIT POLITICS. 

I 

vivors. Thus lie proves that the number of lives sacrificed by the 
system bears, to the number of slaves available to the planter, the pro- 
portion of seven to three — that is to say, for every 300 slaves landed 
and sold in the market, 700 have fallen victims to the deprivations and 
cruelties connected with the traffic. 

" This enormous increase of the slave trade, it must be remembered, 
had taken place during the period of vigorous efforts for its suppres- 
sion. England alone, according to McQueen, had expended for this 
object, up to 1842, in the employment of a naval force on the coast of 
Africa, the sum of $88,888,888, and he estimated the annual expendi- 
ture at that time at $2,500,000. 

" The disclosures of Mr. Buxton produced a profound sensation 
throughout England, and the conviction was forced upon the public 
mind, and ' upon Her Majesty's confidential advisers,' that the slave 
trade could not be suppressed by physical force, and that it was 'in- 
dispensable to enter upon some new preventive system calculated to 
arrest the foreign slave trade.' 

" The remedy proposed and attempted to be carried out, was ' the 
deliverance of Africa by calling forth her own resources.' 

" To accomplish this great work, the capitalists of England were to 
set on foot agricultural companies, who, under the protection of the 
Government, should obtain lands by treaty with the native? and em- 
ploy them in its tillage ; to send out trading ships and open factories 
at the most commanding positions ; to increase and concentrate the 
English naval force on the coast, the rivers, and the interior. These 
measures adopted, the companies formed were to call to their aid a 
race of teachers of African blood, from Sierra Leone and the West 
Indies, who should labor with the whites in diffusing intelligen-se ia 
imparting religious instruction, in teaching agriculture, in establishing 
and encouraging legitimate commerce, and in impeding and suppress- 
ing the slave trade. In conformity with these views and aims, the 
African Civilization Society was formed, and the Governmen* 
fitted* out three large iron steamers, at an expense of $300,000, for 
the use of the company. 

" Mr. McQueen, who had for more than twenty years devoted him- 
self to the consideration of Africa's redemption and Britain's glory, 
and who had become the most perfect master of African geography 
and African resources, also appealed to the Government, and urged 
the adoption of measures for making all Africa a dependency of the 
British Empire. Speaking of what England had already accomplished, 
and what she could yet achieve, he exclaims : 



I 

THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 555 

'" Unfold the map of the world : Wc command the Ganges. For- 
tified at Bombay, the Indus is our own. Possessed of the islands in 
the mouth of the Persian Gulf, we command the outlets of Persia and 
the mouths of the Euphrates, and consequently of countries the cradle 
of the human race. We command at the Cape of Good Hope. Gib- 
raltar and Malta belonging to us, we control the Mediterranean. Let 
us plant the British standard on the island of Socatora — upon the 
island of Fernando Po, and inland upon the banks of the Niger ; and 
then we may say Asia and Africa, for all their productions and all their 
wants, are under our control. It is in our power. Nothing can pre- 
vent us.' 

" The African Civilization Society commenced its labors under cir- 
cumstances the most favorable for success. Its list of members em- 
braced many of the noblest names of the kingdom. Men of science 
and intelligence embarked in it, and when the expedition set sail, a 
shout of joy arose and a prayer for success ascended ffom ten thousand 
philanthropic English voices. 

" But this magnificent scheme, fraught with untold blessings to 
Africa, and destined, it was believed, not only to regenerate her speed- 
ily, but to produce a revenue of unnumbered millions of dollars to 
the stockholders, proved an utter failure. The African climate, that 
deadly foe to the white man, blighted the enterprise. In a few 
months, disease and death had so far reduced the number of the men 
connected with the expedition, that the enterprise was abandoned." * 

In 1844, Mr. McQueen again sounded the note of alarm in the 
ears of the people of Great Britain, and urged upon public atten- 
tion the necessity of recovering the former advantages, in tropical 
productions, which the nation had possessed. The strong manner 
in which he put the case, will be seen from an extract or two : 

" During the fearful struggle of a quarter of a century, for her ex- 
istence as a nation, against the power and resources of Europe, directed 
by the most intelligent, but remorseless military ambition against hex*, 
the command of the productions of the torrid zone, and the advanta- 
geous commerce which that afi'orded, gave to Great Britain the power 
and resources which enabled her to meet, to combat, and to overcome 
her numerous and reckless enemies in every battle-field, whether by 
sea or land, throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the 

« " Ethiopia," pages 12, 13, 14. 



556 PULPIT POLITICS. 

fabled giant of antiquity. Witli her hundred hands she grasped her 
foes in every region under heaven, and crushed them with resistless 
energy." 

As remarked in a previous chapter, if the possession and control 
of tropical production gave to England such immense resources, 
and secured to her the superiority and such power, in the last cen- 
tury, then she would not yield them in the present, but in a death- 
struggle for their maintenance. That struggle had commenced 
when Mr, McQueen came forward with his appeals to the nation, 
to resort to Africa for the remedy. British philanthropy had 
wrought out its results in the West Indies, and demonstrated the 
futility of the schemes it had pursued. British tropical cultivation 
and the commerce it sustained both lay in ruins, Avhile the slave 
trade and slavery laughed the nation to scorn. In urging imme- 
diate action upon the government and people, he proceeded to 
show that " the increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign 
tropical possessions is become so great, and is advancing so rap- 
idly the power and resources of other nations, that these are em- 
barrassing this country (England,) in all her commercial relations, 
in her pecuniary resources, and in all her political relations and 
negotiations." 

In proof of his assertions, he presented the official returns of 
the exports from the British tropical possessions, as compared with 
those of a few only of those of other nations, in three articles alone 
of tropical products. The following are the results : 



ARTICLES. 
Sugar lbs., 1842 


BEITISH POSSESSIONS. 


FOREIGN COUNTEIES.* 


447,302,352 
27,393,003 
137,443,446 


1,199,044,784 
337,432,840 
981,206,903 




Cotton lbs , 1840 









This exhibition of figures is full of meaning. Nearly three- 
fourths of the products of these foreign countries had been created 
within thirty years of the date of the appeal of Mr. McQueen ; 

* The British Possessions referred to, include the East Indies, West Indies, 
and Mauritius; the foreign countries, the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Javaj 
Venezuela, 



THE COTTOX CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 00 « 

and, aside from the United States, Java, and Venezuela, all were 
dependent upon the slave trade for the successful prosecution of 
their cultivation, Mr. McQ., therefore, proceeded to say : 

" If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the tropical 
territories of other powers opposed and checked hy British tropical 
cultivation, then the interests and the power of such states will rise 
into a preponderance over those of Great Britain ; and the power and 
the influence of the latter will cease to be felt, feared, and respected, 
among the civilized and powerful nations of the world." 

From the foregoing facts it is easy to perceive that the slave 
trade had been very sensibly and very seriously affecting the in- 
terests of the British Government;* that it had been an engine 
in the hands of other nations, by which they had thrown England 
into the back ground in the productions of those articles of which 
she formerly had the monopoly, and which had given to her such 
power and influence ; and that she must either crush the slave 
trade, or it would continue to paralyze her. Here is the true 
secret of her movements in reference to the slave trade and 
slavery. Her first step — the prohibition of the slave trade to 
her colonies — gave to Spain, Portugal, and France all the advan- 
tages of that traffic ; and the cheaper and more abundant labor 
thus secured, gave a powerful stimulus to the production of trop- 
ical commodities in their colonies, and soon enabled them to rival 
and greatly surpass England in the amount of her production of 
these articles. It was considered absolutely necessary, therefore, 
to the prosperity of Great Britain, that she should regain the ad- 
vantageous position which she had occupied, in being the chief pro- 
ducer of tropical commodities, or, at least, that she should lessen 
her dependence upon other countries. 

But the Government and its advisers now found themselves in 
the mortifying position of having blundered miserably in their 
emancipation scheme, and of having landed themselves in a dilem- 
ma of singular perplexity. The prohibition of the slave trade, 
and the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, resulted so favor- 
ably to the interests of those countries employing slave labor, by 
enlarging the markets for slave-grown products, that the difficulty 

* For details see Chapter V. 



558 PULPIT POLITICS. 

of inducing them to cease from it, was increased a hundredfold. 
In relation to the embarrassments under which the British nation 
was laboring, Mr. McQueen said : 

" Instead of supplying her own wants with tropical productions, and 
next nearly all Europe, as she formerly did, she had scarcely enough 
of some of the most important articles for her own consumption, while 
her colonies were mostly supplied with foreign slave produce. . . . 
... In the meantime, tropical productions had been increased from 
§75,000,000 to 8300,000,000 annually. The English capital invested 
in tropical productions in the East and West ladies had been, by eman- 
cipation in the latter, reduced from 8750,000,000 to 8650,000,000 ; 
while, since 1808, on the part of foreign nations, 84,000,000,000 of 
fixed capital had been created in slaves and in cultivation wholly de- 
pendent upon the labor of slaves." 

The odds, therefore, in agricultural and commercial capital and 
interest, and consequently in political power and influence, arrayed 
against the British tropical possessions, were very fearful — six to 
one. 

This, then, was the position of England from 1840 to 1844, 
and these the forces marshaled against her, and which she must 
meet and combat. In all her movements hitherto, she had only- 
added to the strength of her rivals. Her first step, the suppres- 
sion of the slave trade, had diminished her West India laborers 
100,000 in twenty-three years, and reduced her means of pro- 
duction to that extent, giving all the benefits arising from this and 
from the slave trade to rival nations, who had but too well im- 
proved their advantages. But besides her commercial sacrifices, 
she had expended $100,000,000 to remunerate the planters for the 
slaves emancipated, and another $100,000,000 for an armed re- 
pression of the slave trade. And yet, in all this enormous ex- 
penditure, resulting only in loss to England, Africa had received 
no advantage whatever ; but, on the contrary, she had been robbed, 
since 1808, of at least 3,500,000 slaves, * who had been exported 
to Cuba and Brazil from her coast, making a total loss to Africa, 
by the rule of Buxton, of 11,666,000 human beings, or one mil- 
lion more than the whole white population of the United States in 



McQueen. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 559 

1830, and more than three times the number of our present slave 
population, * 

Now, it was abundantly evident that Great Britain was im- 
pelled by an overpowering necessity, by the instinct of self-pres- 
ervation, to effect the suppression of the slave trade. It was 
true, no doubt, that considerations of justice and humanity were 
among the motives which influenced her actions. Interest and 
duty, therefore, combined to stimulate her to exertion. The meas- 
ures to be adopted to secure success, were also becoming more 
apparent. Few other nations are guided by statesmen more quick 
to perceive the best course to adopt in an emergency, and none 
more readily abandon a scheme as soon as it proves impractica- 
ble. Great Britain stood pledged to her own citizens and to the 
world for the suppression of the slave trade. She stood equally 
pledged to demonstrate that free labor can be made more pro- 
ductive than slave labor, even in the cultivation of tropical com- 
modities. These pledges she could not deviate from nor revoke. 
Her interests as well as her honor were deeply involved in their 
fulfillment. But she could only demonstrate the greater produc- 
tiveness of free labor over slave labor, by opposing the one to 
the other, in their practical operations on a scale coextensive with 
each other. She must produce tropical commodities so cheaply 
and so abundantly by free labor, that she could undersell slave- 
grown products to such an extent, and glut the markets of the 
world with them so fully, as to render it unprofitable any longer 
to employ slaves in tropical cultivation. Such an enterprise, suc- 
cessfully carried out, she conceived, would be a death-blow to 
slavery and the slave trade. " But," says McQueen, " there re- 
mained no portion of the tropical Avorld, where labor could be 
had on the spot, and whereon Great Britain could conveniently 
and safely plant her foot, in order to accomplish this desirable 
object — extensive tropical cultivation — but in tropical Africa. 
Every other part was occupied by independent nations, or by peo- 
ple that might and would soon become independent." Africa, 
therefore, was the field upon which Great Britain Avas compelled 
to enter and make her second grand experiment, f 

« This refers to 1850. 

tSee "Ethiopia," pages 48, 49. 



560 PULPIT POLITICS. 

But even this field Avas not as fully open as it had been when 
the " Niger Expedition " was fitted out. The failure of that en- 
terprise occurred while the Government was engaged in adjusting 
its difficulties with China, which grew out of the " Opium Ques- 
tion," and in conducting its war with the Sikhs of India. When, 
therefore, attention was again turned to Africa, it was found that 
much of its territory, also, had been occupied by other nations. 
Briefly, we must once more refer to the labors of McQueen for 
the main part of our facts : 

" France, fully alive to the importance of the commerce with Afri- 
ca, had, within a short period, securely placed herself at the mouth of 
the Senegal and at Goree, extending her influence eastward and south- 
eastward from hoth places. She had a settlement at Albreda, on the 
Gambia, a short distance above St. Mary's, and which commands that 
river. She had formed a settlement at the mouth of the Gaboon, and 
another near the chief mouth of the Niger. She had fixed herself 
at Massuah and Bure., on the west shore of the Red Sea, commanding 
the inlets into Abyssinia. She had endeavored to fix her flag at Brava 
and the mouth of the Jub, and had taken permanent possession of the 
important island of Johanna, situated in the center of the northern 
outlet of the Mozambique channel, by which she acquired its com- 
mand. Her active agents were placed in Southern Abyssinia, and 
employed in traversing the borders of the Great White Nile ; while 
Algiers, on the northern shores of Africa, must speedily be her own.* 
Spain had planted herself, since the Niger expedition, in the island 
of Fernando Po, which commands all the outlets of the Niger and the 
rivers from Cameroons to the equator. Portugal, witnessing these 
movements, had taken measures to revive her once fine and still im- 
portant colonies in tropical Africa. They included 17° of latitude 
on the east coast, from the tropic of Capricorn to Zanzibar, and nearly 
19° on the west coast, from the 20th° south latitude, northward to 
Cape Lopez. The Imaum of Muscat claimed the sovereignty on the 
east coast, from Zanzibar to Babelmandel, with the exception of the 
station of the French at Brava. From the Senegal northward to 
Algeria was in the possession of the independent Moorish princes. 
Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt were north of the tropic of Cancer, and in- 
dependent tributaries of Turkey. 

" Here, then, all the eastern and northern coasts of Africa, and also 

* This has been accomplished. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 561 

the west coast from the Gambia northward, was found to be in the 
actual possession of independent sovereignties, who, of course, would 
not yield the right to England. Southern Africa, below the tropic of 
Capricorn, already belonging to England, though only the same dis- 
tance south of the equator that Cuba and Florida are north of it, is 
highly elevated above the sea level, and not adapted to tropical pro- 
ductions. The claims of Portugal on the west coast, before noticed, 
extending from near the British South African line to Cape Lopez, 
excluded England from that district. From Cape Lopez to the mouth 
of the Niger, including the Gaboon and Fernando Po, as before stated, 
was under the control of the French and Spanish. 

"The only new territory, therefore, not claimed by civilized coun- 
tries, which could be made available to England for her great scheme 
of tropical cultivation, was that between the Niger and Liberia, em- 
bracing nearly fourteen degrees of longitude.'" 

Subsequently to the summing up of the facts here stated, Rev. 
Dr. Livingstone's discoveries, in the interior of Africa, have added 
much additional territory to the fields upon which Great Britain 
can enter. 

Section II. — Condition of the Cotton Question in 1850. 

Before attempting to show what has been done in Africa, or 
elsewhere, toward increasing the supplies of cotton to the English 
manufacturers, the exact condition of this question in 1850 must 
be given ; as it will afford a starting point from wliich to estimate 
the true progress made by England in her efforts to become in- 
dependent of the United States, for her supplies of this commodity. 

For information on this subject we are indebted to the London 
Economist, January, 1850. After a most elaborate investigation, 
the editor thus sums up the results : 

" Now, hearing in mind that the figures in the above tables arc, with 
scarcely an exception, ascertained facts, and not estimates, let us sum 
the conclusions to which they have conducted us : conclusions suffi- 
cient, if not to alarm us, yet certainly to create much uneasiness, and 
to suggest great caution on the part of all concerned, directly or in- 
directly, in the great manufacture of England. 

" 1. That our supply of cotton from all quarters (excluding the 

36 



562 PULPIT POLITICS. 

United States,) has for many years been decidedly, though irregularly, 
decreasing. 

"2. That our supply of cotton />-om all quarters, (including the 
United States,) available for home consumption, has of late years been 
falling off at the rate of 400,000 pounds a week, -while our consump- 
tion has been increasing during the same period at the rate of 1,440,- 
000 pounds a week. 

"3. That the United States is the only country where the growth 
of cotton is on the increase ; and that there even the increase does not, 
on an average, exceed three per cent., or 32,000,000 pounds annually, 
which is barely sufficient to supply the increasing demand for its own 
consumption and for the continent of Europe. 

"4. That no stimulus of price can materially augment this annual 
increase, as the planters always grow as much cotton as the negro 
population can pick. 

" 5. That consequently, if the cotton manufacture of Great Britain 
is to increase at all — on its present footing — it can only be enabled to 
do so by applying a great stimulus to the growth of cotton in other 
countries adapted for the culture." 

The writer also presents the following historical sketch of the 
cotton trade of England, and closes with a statement of the reason 
why other countries have diminished their production of cotton. 
It will be seen that it is due to the fact that they are unable to 
compete with the United States in its production. We can supply 
the markets so much cheaper than they are able to do, that our 
cotton is driving theirs from the English market. The writer says : 

" "Within the memory of many now living, a great change has taken 
place in the countries from which our main bulk of cotton is procured. 
In the infancy of our manufacture our chief supply came from the 
Mediterranean, especially from Smyrna and Malta. Neither of these 
places now sends us more than a few chance bags occasionally. In the 
last century the West Indies were our principal source. In the year 
1786, out of 20,000,000 pounds imported, 5,000,000 came from Smyrna, 
and the rest from the West Indies. In 1848, the West Indies sent us 
only 1,300 bales, (520,000 pounds.) In 1781, Brazil began to send us 
cotton, and the supply thence continued to increase, though irregular- 
ly, till 1830, since which time it has fallen off to one-half. xVbout 
1822, Egyptian cotton began to come in considerable quantities, its 
cultivation having been introduced into that country two years before. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 



56? 



The import exceeded 80,000 bales, (32,000,000 pounds,) in 1845. 
The average of the last three years has not been a third of that quan- 
tity. Cotton has always been grown largely in Hindostan, but it did 
not send much to England till about thirty years ago. In the five 
years ending in 1824, the yearly average import was 33,000 bales; 
in 1841, it reached 274,000 ; and may now be roughly estimated at 
200,000 bales a year, (80,000,000 pounds.) 

" Now what is the reason why these countries, after having at one 
time produced so largely and so well, should have ceased or curtailed 
their growth within recent years ? It is clearly a question of price. 
Let us consider a few of the cases : 



AT THE CLOSE OF THE 
TEARS, 


la 

0-3.5 


I 


Ig 


1 
1^ 


ll 

3 = 


1 

1. 


S 

3 ° 


1 

1 


1836-1839 inclusive 

1840-1843 


Id ■ 


36 


8}4d 
5%d 
^Vsd 


42 


\<iMd 

Id 

b%d 


43 


A%d 

2%d 


40 


1844-1848 





" Here, surely, may be read the explanation of the deplorable fall- 
ing off in our miscellaneous supply." 

But we may extend these examinations so as to embrace a range 
of facts that will show the true position of all Europe at this 
period, 1850, in relation to the cotton question. 

POUNDS. 

The total consumption of eotton hy England in 1849 624,000,000 

By France 156,000,000 

By the remaining Continental countries 129,920,000 

To which add that of the United States 270,000,000 

Total consumption of cotton in 1849 1,179,920,000 

The sources from which these supplies were obtained reveals 
the extent to which slave labor and free labor, respectively, con- 
tributed of their products to make up the amount consumed. 
They were as follows : * 



* These statistics are mainly taken from the London Economist, and the 
details may be found in "Ethiopia," 



564 PULPIT POLITICS. 



SLAVE LABOR COTTON CONSUMED IN 1849. 

POTmrs. 

By England, from Brazil 30,000,000 

By England, from United States 522,530,800 

By France, from United States 147,000,000 

By France, from Brazil, say 3,000,000 

By other Continental countries, from United States 128,800,000 

By United States, growth of United States 270,000,000 

Total slave labor consumption ^ 1,101,330,800 

FREE LABOR COTTON CONSUMED IN 1849. 
POUNDS. 

By England, from all sources 71,469,200 

By France, say 6,000,000 

By other Continental countries 1,120,000 

Total free labor consumption 78,589,200 

Grand total cotton consumption 1,179,920,000 

This was the condition of the cotton supplies, so far as they 
depend upon slave labor and free labor respectively, upon the 
ushering in of the year 1850. 

For the year 1859, the imports of cotton into Great Britain 
from all sources, excepting the United States and the East Indies, 
were only 50,125,000 pounds, while the monthly consumption of 
her looms was 46,600,000 pounds. Nor did India, at that moment, 
present any very encouraging prospects, as she furnished but 
70,838,000 pounds of the 755,469,000 pounds that year imported 
into England. 

Here had been a ten years' struggle on the part of England to 
render herself less dependent upon America for cotton. That the 
attempt failed is fully admitted, and that India could not be relied 
upon as a field in which to compete with the United States is re- 
luctantly conceded. On this point the London Economist, after 
showing that Brazil, Egypt and the East Indies could not be made 
to meet the wants of the English manufacturers, said : 

" Our hopes lie in a very diiferent direction ; we look to our West 
India. African, and Australian colonies, as the quarters from which, 
would Government only afford every possible facility, we might, ere 
long, draw such a supply of cotton as would, to say the least, make 
the fluctuations of the American crop, and the varying proportions of 



THE COTTON CHOP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 565 

it which falls to our share, of far less consequence to our prosperity 
than they now are." 

It was of vital importance to Great Britain that she should be 
able to promote the cultivation of cotton in her own territories. 
Thus far she had failed, and a renewal of her efforts was all that 
she could do, Avhile, in the meantime, she remained hopelessly 
dependent upon the American planter. 

Section III. — Progress of events connected with Cotton 
Culture after 1850, and their results at the opening of 1860. 

The great leading interest of England — her principal depend- 
ence for the maintenance of her power and influence — is her 
manufactures. Out of this interest grows her immense commerce, 
and from her commerce arises her ability to sustain her vast 
navy, giving to her such a controlling influence in the affairs of the 
world. " Wealth, civilization, and knowledge add rapidly and in- 
definitely to the powers of manufacturing and commercial indus- 
try." All these Great Britain possesses in an eminent degree. 

" It is asserted that the manufacturers of England could in a short 
time be made to quadruple their produce — that so vast is the power 
which the steam-engine has added to the means of production in com- 
mercial industry, that it is susceptible oi almost indefinite and im- 
mediate extension — that Manchester and Glasgow could in a few 
years prepare themselves for furnishing muslin and cotton goods to 
the whole world — that with England the great difficulty always felt 
is, not to get hands to keep pace with the demand of the consumers, 
hut to get a demand to keep pace with the hands employed in the pro- 
duction.^^ * 

We have seen that the low price of cotton — an average of 7 
91-100 cents per pound — from 1840 to 1849 — was the principal 
cause of the decrease of its production in countries other than the 
United States ; and that an increase of price was essential to the 
encouragement of its extended cultivation in the countries which 
had been supplying it, as well as in new fields where its growth 
might be introduced. No permanent increase of price occurred, 

* "Ethiopia, ' page 56. 



e'jb PULPIT POLITICS. 

however, until 1857, wlieii it rose to 12 55-100 cents per pound; 
but this was in consequence of the short crop made by the Amer- 
ican planters, who exported that year 303,159,226 pounds less 
than in the preceding year. The years 1850 and 1851 had also 
been unfavorable — the former supplying for export 391,220,665 
pounds less than the exports of 1849, and the latter 99,365,180 
pounds less than those of that year — the average price per pound 
for the two years being 11 7-10 cents. The five years succeeding 
1851 furnished abundant crops in America, and the price averaged 
only 9 12-100 cents per pound. No increased production could 
be secured under these prices ; but the rise of 1857 brought Eng- 
land 250,338,144 pounds of cotton from India, being 69,841,520 
pounds more than the imports from that country during the pre- 
ceding year. In 1858 and 1859, the United States produced her 
usual abundant crops, and thus again resumed her monopoly of 
the cotton markets — flinging to the winds the temporary prosper- 
ity of India, and reducing her suppHes, in 1858, below those of 
1857, more than 112,000,000 pounds. 

But though the American cotton crops of 1858 and 1859 were 
large — that of the latter year allowing an export of 1,372,755,000 
pounds — yet owing to the increasing consumption on the conti- 
nent and in the United States, the supply of England was not 
equal to her wants ; and the anxiety in relation to her cotton 
supplies continued to engage attention. 

The year 1859, it will be seen, supplies another point like 
1849, from which to institute investigations as to the progress, 
made by the English people, in developing the cultivation of cot- 
ton in fields not before devoted to that object. The success at- 
tending their eiforts — or rather the failure of their schemes — 
will be apparent when the facts are fully presented. Again we 
quote from the London Uconomist : * 

" We are not surprised that the future supply of cotton should have 
engaged the attention of Parliament on an early night of the session. 
It is a question the importance of which can not well be overrated, if 
we refer only to the commercial interests which it involves, or to the 
social comfort or happiness of the millions who are now dependent 

« February 12, 1859. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 567 

upon it for their support. But it has an aspect far loftier, and even 
more important. At its root lies the ultimate success of a policy for 
which England has made great struggles and great sacrifices — the 
maintaining of existing treaties, and perhaps the peace of the world. 
Every year as it passes, proves more and more that the question of 
slavery, and even the slave trade, is destined to be materially affected, 
if not ultimately governed, by considerations arising out of the culti- 
vation of this plant. It is impossible to observe the tendency of pub- 
lic opinion throughout America, not even excepting the free States, 
with relation to the slave trade, without feeling conscious that it is 
drifting into indifference, and even laxity. In every light, then, in 
which this great subject can be viewed, it is one which well deserves 
the careful attention equally of the philanthropist and the statesman." 

The Economist then proceeds to say, that in 1840 the total sup- 
ply of cotton imported into England was 592,488,000 pounds ; and 
that, with temporary fluctuations, it had steadily grown until it had 
reached, in 1859 and the two preceding years, an average annual 
amount of more than 900,000,000 pounds, showing an increase of 
fifty per cent. 

" Nevertheless," continues the editor, " the demand had been con- 
stantly pressing upon the supply, the consumption has always shown 
a tendency to exceed the production, and the consequent result of a 
high price has, during a majority of these years, acted as a powerful 
stimulus to cultivation. But, practically speaking, we possess but two 
sources of supply, and both present such powerful obstacles to extend- 
ed cultivation, that we are not surprised at the habitual uneasiness of 
those whose interests demand a continually-increasing quantity. Those 
two sources are the United States and British India. It is true that 
Brazil, Egypt, the West Indies, and some other countries, furnish 
small quantities of cotton ; but when we state that of the 931,847,000 
pounds imported into the United Kingdom in 1858, the proportion 
furnished by America and India was 870,G56,000 pounds, leaving for 
all other places put together a supply of only 01,191,000 pounds; not- 
withstanding the many laudable efforts both on the part of Govern- 
ment and of the mercantile community, to encourage its growth in new 
countries, it will be admitted that, as an immediate and practical ques- 
tion, it is confined to these two sources. They are not only the sources 
from whence the largest supplies are received, but they are also those 
where the chief increase has taken place." 



568 PULPIT POLITICS. 

Extending these investigations, we find that in 1859 the imports 
of cotton into Great Britain, from all sources, was 1,215,989,072 
pounds, of which 1,154,038,144 pounds were from the United 
States and the East Indies, leaving but 61,951,928 from all other 
countries, or an increase from them of only 760,000 pounds dur- 
ing the year ! The progress in Africa was too inconsiderable to 
• merit much attention. 

The powerful obstacles to extended cultivation in the United 
States, alluded to by the Uconomist, exist in the inability of the 
cotton planters to increase their labor forces in any greater ratio 
than that of the natural increase of the slave population. This 
increase is about three per cent, per annum, and the ratio of in- 
creasing production of cotton has generally been limited to that 
amount. From 1857 the prices remained more than two cents 
higher per pound than during the five preceding years, and thus a 
great stimulus was afforded to the American planter to increase 
his cultivation. But while the prices richly remunerated him, they 
were at least one cent per pound too low to allow of any scriou^ 
competition from India. At 12 55-100 cents per pound, in 1857, 
the East Indies sent to England 250,338,000 pounds; but in 1858, 
at 11 72-100 cents per pound, only 138,253,000 pounds were for- 
warded from that quarter. 

It was plain, therefore, that if the American planter could keep 
the price of cotton below about eleven cents per pound, he could 
retain the monopoly of the markets of Europe by preventing an 
increased supply from India. But here, at this very point, a diffi- 
culty presented itself. The increase of the demand for cotton, as 
has been estimated by a British writer, would equal Jive per cent, 
per annum, were it practicable to augment the production to that 
extent ; and the American planter could only increase it in the 
ratio of three per cent. 

An important question arose here, as to who should supply this 
increasing demand. The American planter could not do it, ex- 
cept by extending the area of slave labor ; and the British people 
dare not attempt it, Avhile cotton maintained the low prices which 
had prevailed. The English introduced the coolie system of labor, 
to revive their lost fortunes in the West Indies; and, fearing the 
Americans would renew the slave trade, they again commenced 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 



569 



their efforts to prevent such a result. It was readily perceived, 
by English manufacturers and statesmen, that if the slave trade 
should be renewed by the United States — an opinion for which 
there never was any just foundation — all their hopes of regaining 
a monopoly of tropical cultivation, as well as their expectations of 
divorcing themselves from the cotton planters of the United States, 
would be at an end. It was of the utmost importance, therefore, 
that such a calamity to England, as the renewal of the slave trade 
by the United States, should be averted at all hazards. 

In referring to this subject, the London Economist, of the date 
before quoted, says : 

" But -with what an enormous interest does this view of the case in- 
vest the cultivation of cotton in India ? It is the only real obstacle 
we can interpose to the growing; feeling in favor of slavery, and the 
diminishing abhorrence of the slave trade in the United States. It is 
the only field competition with which can, for many years to come, re- 
dress the undue stimulant which high pi-ices are giving to slave labor 
in America." * 

That the editor was well sustained in his opinions, by actual re- 
sults, is apparent from the fact that no marked increase in the 
production of cotton had taken place excepting in the United States 
and East Indies. This was true not only as to late years, but has 
been true from the day that the American planters began their 
shipments of cotton in any considerable quantities. Here are the 
facts, as indicated by the imports into Great Britain, from all 
sources excepting the United States and the East Indies, for the 
years stated, in pounds : 



YEARS. 


POUNDS. 


TEARS. 


I>OUND,S. 


1786 


19, '.too, 000 


1848 


28,070,712 


1800 




1849 


50,126,447 


1821 

1832 

1840 


48,600,000 

36,997,000 

27,620,667 


1850 


51,591,007 


1851 

1852 


58,113,811 


1841 


21,363,706 


1853 




1842 


24 764 698 


1854 

1855 


35,345,794 

64,943,312 


1843 


32,744,867 


1844 


40,252,866 


1856 




1845 

1846 

1847 


36,892,115 

31,367,738 

26,273,710 


1857 


64,172,704 


1858 


61,189,856 


1859 


61,950,928 



■* February 12, 1859. 



570 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



These were startling results, truly, to those who had been flat- 
tering themselves that British capital and enterprise could force 
the cultivation of cotton in new fields of production, or augment 
it in the old ones from which the original supplies had been ob- 
tained. 

Let us now look back for a moment to the state of the cotton 
supplies and cotton manufacture in Great Britain, a few years after 
the outbreak of the American Revolution. Her cotton manufac- 
tures were then in their infancy. In 1781 her imports of cotton 
were 5,198,778 pounds, nearly all of which was manufactured 
within the year. In 1786 the imports had increased to 19,900,000 
pounds, and her consumption to 19,475,000 pounds. From that 
date to 1832, the year preceding the passage of the West India 
Emancipation Bill, the sources whence the cotton supplies were 
derived may be inferred from the following statement of the im- 
ports of that article into Great Britain, from the countries named, 
at the different dates given. The quantity is stated in pounds : 



TEARS. 


UNITED 
STATES. 


EAST INDIES. 


WEST INDIES. 


BEAZIL. 


TURKEY 

AND 

SMYKNA. 


OTHEE 
COUNTEIES. 


1786 


»189,316 

»9,330,000 

«I7,789,803 

*124,893,405 


1,622,000 
30,000,000 
50,000,000 


5,800,000 
12,000,000 

17,000,000 
9,000,000 
1,708,764 


J2,000,000 
20,000,000 

24,000,000 
28,000,000 
20,109,560 


5,000,000 

^5,500,000 
29,113,890 


117,100,000 

7,000,000 

6,000,000 

964,933 


1791 


1798 


1800 

1821 


1832 


»322,215,122 


t5,l 78,625 



From these statistics, we pass on to 1840, two years after final 
emancipation in the West Indies, and select the years that fairly 
represent the condition of the cotton supplies of Great Britain, 
from all sources, from that date to 1860 : 

Imports of Cotton into Great Britain for the years stated. 



YEARS. 


UNITED STATES. 


BRAZIL. 


i 


WEST IN- 
DIES AND 
GUIANA. 


OTHER 
COUN- 
TEIES. 


TOTAL. 


1840 

1845 

1849 

1856 

1857 

1858 

1859 

1860 


487,856,504 
620,650,412 
034,504,050 
780,040,016 
654,758,048 
732,403,840 
901,707,264 
1,115,890,608 


14,774,171 
20,157,633 
30,738,133 
21,830,701 

29,910.>:VJ 
16,40';.- 
22,47>.- 
17,280, >. i 


8,324,937 
14,614,699 
17,309,843 

34,01C,S4,s 

i,';,m.Vm. 1 


77,011,839 
58,437,420 
70,838,515 

l!<n,490,(724 

_.il. 111,1. ,- 


800,157 

1,394,447 
944,307 

402,7.S4 

^.\^r. ■ - 

■ ,- 

11 


3,649,402 
725,336 
1,074,164 
0.439,323 
T,;»08,160 

,,ii48 


592,488,010 

721,979,953 

755,469,012 

1,023,886,304 

909,318,896 

931,847,056 

1,215,989,072 

1,391,929,752 



* See notes on next page. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 571 

Here we have Brazil supplying less cotton in 1860 than in 1791 ; 
and the West Indies and all "other countries," a considerably less 
quantity in 1860 than the British West Indies alone was able to 
furnish in 1800. The increase from the Mediterranean — princi- 
pally from Egypt — has been but slight as between 1856 and 

1860, being only 9,329,000 pounds, or enough, merely, to supply 
the spindles of Great Britain for three days. There is, therefore, 
no disguising the fact stated by the Economist, that the East In- 
dies and the United States are the only countries from which in- 
creasing quantities have been obtained to any important extent, 
notwithstanding the extraordinary efforts made to produce a differ- 
ent result. In relation to Brazil the Westminster Review for April, 

1861, says : 

" Since the abolition of the external slave trade in 1850, an increase 
in the available supply of labor sufficient to extend in any great degree 
the cotton cultivation has become impossible, and for that reason we 
have little to hope from this quarter."' 

In 1860, then, the United States and British India were the 
only prominent rivals in the great cotton markets of the world. 
The American planter had the decided advantage in the contest 
for supremacy in very many respects j but still he had obstacles 
to overcome of a very stubborn nature, among which, as already 
noticed, were the difficulties in the way of the extension of slave 
labor. To retain his monopoly of the cotton markets, he must not 
only increase his production, but, at the same time, keep the prices 
depressed below the rates at which it could be supplied from India. 
To allow any measures to be adopted which would greatly dimin- 
ish the production of American cotton, would be to promote the 
interests of the East India planters, and enable them successfully 
to rival those of the United States. The existing difficulties in the 
way of the East Indies, at the opening of the year 1859, are thus 
stated by the London Economist: 

* These figures iuclude the total exports. 

t East Indies and Mauritius. 

X Reported as from Portuguese colonies, Brazil being a Portuguese colony. 

§ Turkey and Egypt. 

II From French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies. 



572 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" In some important respects the conditions of supply from India 
differ very much from those which attach to and determine the supply 
from America. In India there is no limit to the quantity of labor. 
There may be said to be little or none to the quantity of land. The 
obstacle is of another kind ; it lies almost exclusively in the want of 
cheap transit. Our supplies of India cotton are not even determined 
by the quantity produced, but by that which, when produced, can be 
profitably forwarded to England. It is, therefore, a question of price 
whether we obtain more or less. A rise in the price of one penny the 
pound in 1857, suddenly increased the supply from 180,000,000 pounds 
in 1856, to 250,000,000 in 1857. A fall in the price in 1858 again 
suddenly reduced it to 138,000,000 pounds. It was not that the pro- 
duction of cotton varied in these proportions in those years, but that at 
given prices it was possible to incur more cost in the transit than at 
others. The same high price, therefore, which at present renders a large 
supply possible from India, creates an unusual demand for slaves in 
the United States. But would not the same corrective consequence 
be produced if we could diminish the cost of transit in India ? Every 
farthing a pound saved in carriage is equivalent to so much added to the 
price of cotton. Four-pence the pound in the Liverpool market, for 
good India cotton, with a cost of two-pence from the spot of pro- 
duction, would command just as great a supply as a price of five- 
pence the pound if the intermediate cost were three-pence. The 
whole question resolves itself into one of good roads and cheap con- 
veyance. Labor in India is infinitely more abundant than in the 
United States, and much cheaper ; land is at least as cheap ; the cli- 
mate is as good ; but the bullock trains on the miserable roads of 
Hindostan can not compete with the steamers and other craft on the 

Mississippi Whatever, therefore, be the financial sacrifice 

which in the first place must be made for the purpose of opening 
the interior of India, it should be cheerfully made, as the only means 
by which we can hope permanently to improve the revenues of India, 
to increase and cheapen the supply of the most important raw mate- 
rial of our own industry, and to bring in the abundant labor of the 
millions of our fellow-subjects in India, to redress the deficiency in 
the slave States of America, and thus to give the best practical check 
to the growing attractions of slavery and the slave trade." * 

From all the facts and considerations before us it can no longer 
be disputed that the manufacturers of Great Britain, in 1860, as 

* London Economist, February 12, 1859. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 



573 



in 1850, were still dependent upon India and the United States for 
their cotton supplies ; and that an increased production of cotton 
in the United States, at the low rates at which it had been previ- 
ously furnished, would crush out all the hopes of enlarged exports 
from India, or extended cultivation anywhere else. It is easy to 
perceive, therefore, that Great Britain has long been deeply inter- 
ested in the promotion of whatever policy would tend to diminish 
the production of American cotton, and enhance the price of that 
commodity, so as to stimulate its cultivation in her own prov- 
inces. 

The following statement of the prices of cotton from 1821 to 
1860, inclusive, will enable the reader to discover the causes which 
have produced the fluctuations in the production of cotton through- 
out the world, as far as its culture was controlled by the price of 
the article. The table of prices is taken from the Congressional 
Report on Finance, for 1860. The price stated is the average per 
pound for the year : 



AVERAGE 
POUND 


COST PER 
IN CENTS. 


AVERAGE COST PER 
POUND IN CENTS. 


AVERAGE COST PER 
POUND IN CENTS. 


AVEKAG 
POUND 


E COST PER 
IN CENTS. 

12 11 


1821 


16.2 


1831 


. . 9.1 


1841.. . 10 2 


1851 


1822 . 


... 16.6 


1832 . 


9.8 


1842 8.1 

1843 6.2 

1844 8.1 


1852 

1853 


8.05 

9.85 


1823 

1824 

1825 

1826 

1827 

1828 

1829 

1830 


11.8 

15.4 

20.9 

12.2 

10 

10.7 

10 

9.9 


1833 


11.1 


1834 

1835 


12.8 

16.8 


1854 


9.47 


1845 5.92 


1855 


8.74 


1836 

1837 

1838 

1839 

1840 


16.8 

14.2 

10.3 

14.8 

8.5 


1846 7.8] 

1847 10.34 

1848 7.61 

1849 6.4 


1856 


9.49 


1857 


12.55 


1858.. .. 
1859 


11.72 

12.72 


1850 11.3 


1860 


10.85 



Section IV. — Agencies engaged in promoting measures 

TENDING TO DESTROY AMERICAN COMMERCE, BY LESSENING THE 
DEPENDENCE OF EUROPE UPON US FOR CoTTON. 



The question of the "cotton supplies," and who shall 
their monopoly in the future, is one of grave import to the Gov- 
ernment and people of the United States. Let us look at the in- 
terests which it involves, and what it is that is risked to the nation 
in the loss of the cotton crop — a loss which many at the North 
have professed to believe would be no detriment to the prosperity 
of the country. 



574 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



The quantity and value of our exports of domestic products is 
annually reported to Congress. The report on the finances for 
1860, gives the total value of all the exports of the country since 
1821. The several classes of products foot up as follows : 

Breadstuffs and Provisions $1,006,951,235 

Rice 87,854,511 

Tobacco 335,181,067 

Cotton 2,574,834,091 

Here the value of the cotton crop, to the foreign commerce of 
the country, stands out in its true proportions. And if to the value 
of the cotton we add that of the tobacco and rice, the "entire ex- 
ports of the Southern States, in these three products alone, reach 
a value of nearly three billions of dollars, or thrice the amount of 
the whole exports of all the other products of the soil. 

These facts give us a clear idea of the character of our foreign 
commerce during the last thirty-nine years, and the extent to which 
the Northern and Southern States, respectively, have supplied the 
commodities exported — those of breadstuffs and provisions, main- 
ly, being of Northern production, and the tobacco, rice, and cotton 
of Southern. To illustrate this point more fully, take the three 
years ending with 1860, as a means of comparison between the 
North and the South, in their present relations to our foreign com- 
merce. The exports of the products of the soil, for the three 
years named, stood as follows : 



PRODUCTS. 


1858. 


1859. 


I860. 




$ 50,683,285 

17,009,767 

1,870,578 

131,386,661 


$ 38,305,991 

21,074,038 

2,207,148 

161,434,923 


$ 45,271,850 

15,906,547 

2,567,399 

191,806,555 






Cotton 





The man of intelligence can now comprehend the extent to 
which the cotton crop enters into the foreign commerce of the 
country, and the ruinous consequences to our national progress 
and prosperity which must follow the discontinuance of its pro- 
duction, or its exclusion from foreign markets. Strike out the ex- 
ports of tobacco, rice, and cotton, and the commerce of the United 
States, in the products of the soil, would at once dwindle down 
from two hundred and fifty-Jive millions of dollars per annum to 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMiMERCE. 575 

less than fifty millions of dollars. The history of the commercial 
operations of the country, for the hist forty years, demonstrates 
the truth of this proposition. 

But, again, by taking the monied value of all the commodities 
exported for the last fJiirteen years — from 1847 to 1860 inclusive 
— cotton will still be found occupying an imperial position in the 
commerce of the country. The fiscal year ends June 30, and the 
several amounts were as follows : 

Cotton $1,489,859,591 

Tobacco 172,319,772 

Specie and Bullion 438,097,554 

Products of the Sea 45,489,946 

Products of the Forest 141,504,708 

Breadstuffs and Provisions, including Rice 601,018,09(5 

Manufactures 331,747,346 

Raw Produce 28,107,594 

$3,308,144,607 

Deducting the specie and bullion, and the cotton alone, through- 
out a series of thirteen years, is more than half the value of all 
the articles exported. 

We can now comprehend the extent of the risks to the national 
prosperity of the United States which are involved in the diminu- 
tion or destruction of the cotton crop, and the importance to the 
people of Great Britain of securing to themselves the monopoly 
of the cotton supplies. From this stand-point, then, we can pro- 
ceed with our examination of' the agencies engaged in promoting 
the interests of Englishmen in their eflbrts to regain their monop- 
oly of tropical cultivation. 

The struggle, at present, for the monopoly of the cotton sup- 
plies, as we have seen, is narrowed down to a contest between the 
United States and India. But, from the day that Hon. George 
Thompson lectured in old England, to induce its government and 
people to engage largely in cotton culture in the East Indies — 
from the day that this same gentleman undertook to lecture in New 
Enghuid, to promote the abolitior) of slavery in America — our 
country has maintained its advantageous position, and India 
has remained prostrate at the footstool of the American planter. 
Not only have the questions of price and transportation been against 
India, but the character of her staple, very inferior at the outset, 



576 PULPIT POLITICS. 

has not been improved in quality to the present day. So long, 
therefore, as the production of cotton received no check in Amer- 
ica, so long India failed to make any improvement in the quality 
of her product, or in the means of its transit from the interior ; 
because this improvement was a matter dependent upon large in- 
vestments of capital, and British capitalists shrunk instinctively 
from a contest with the monarch of America — King Cotton. But 
the production of a better staple in India was dependent not simply 
upon an increased outlay of capital ; the advanced civilization of 
the population was also necessary to the accomplishment of this 
object. On these points the London Examiner says, in a late 



" As for the opportunity, has it not been the same for India as for 
America for the forty-eight years of free trade which have elapsed 
since the year 1813, and what has been the result? Here it is from 
the unquestionable authority of Mr. Henry Ashworth : 

" ' The proportion of India cotton consumed in this country last 
year (I860,) formed only seven per cent, in quantity, and only four 
and a half per cent, in value ; and although 216,832,000 pounds were 
actually imported and brought to market, the great bulk — say more 
than two-thirds — was too poor to find buyers for English consump- 
tion.' 

" Is it by bringing more of this trash into our market that India 
cotton is to prove a substitute for American? The cotton of India is 
just now exactly what it was when first imported seventy years ago, 
having in all that time sustained no improvement. It is probably now 
what it was four thousand years ago, and what it will continue to be 
for another four thousand years, if it shall continue to be cultivated 
by an ignorant, poverty-stricken Asiatic peasantry, to whom the death 
of a pair of bullocks is bankruptcy." 

That India can not compete with us in the culture of cotton is 
apparent from the following facts in relation to the cost of its pro- 
duction in that country. The statement is taken from the Cal- 
cutta Englishman of 1861, a paper familiar with the subject it 
discusses : 

" The following table shows the expense of cultivating an acre of 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 577 

land with cotton in the Kaicliore Doab, the yield of which will be 260 
pounds, or when cleaned 70 pounds : 

Government land tax £0 5 

Cost of preparing land 3 

Weeding , 10 

Cost of 20% pounds of seed 4 

Sowing with drill 2 

Picking the cotton 10 

Cleaning the cotton 1 3 

Carriage to seaport 4 8 

Freight of £3 10s per tun 2 

Screwing, baling, &c 11 

£1 4 10 

Commissions at 23^ per cent., 7^<d 

Brokerage at J^ per cent., IJ^d 9 

Total £1 5 7 

Or nearly 4|d. per pound, exclusive of any profit whatever, either to 
the cultivator or shipper. It is thus clearly perceptible that the 
present price of India cotton in the Liverpool market is not sufiicient 
to induce any increase in the cultivation, the more so as the charges 
here given are irrespective of the thousand and one demands made on 
the trader by every native agent through whose hands it passes." 

But let us turn a moment from India to Africa. When, in 1850, 
it became obvious to the British people tliat India must fail in her 
competition with the United States, the most vigorous efforts were 
made to promote the cultivation of cotton in Africa, as a field 
more hopeful of favorable results. This enterprise, however, could 
be prosecuted only by the employment of slave labor ; yet it was 
not discouraged on that account by the English people. It is 
known to every one familiar with the civil condition of Africa, that 
slavery everywhere prevails throughout all its territory, inhabited 
by the negro race. To cultivate cotton in Africa, therefore, is to 
establish slavery on a profitable basis, in a new field of tropical 
production. But to do so, it was argued, was justifiable on the 
ground of philanthropy, as it would tend to paralyze the slave 
trade, and prevent its renewal in America ; that is to say, Eng- 
lishmen assented to the establishment of slavery in Africa, pro- 
vided its success there would destroy it in the United States. 

" Once let the African chitfs find out, as in many instances they 
37 



578 PULPIT POLITICS. 

have already found out, that the sale of the laborer can be only a 
source of profit once, while his Jabor may be a source of constant and 
increasing profit, and we shall hear no more of their killing the hen 
which may lay so many golden eggs, for the sake only of a solitary 
and final prize." 

Thus spoke the London Economist early in 1859. In comment- 
ing on the consequences of the movement for promoting cotton 
culture in Africa, the American 3Iissionary, an anti-slavery publi- 
cation, very truthfully remarks : 

" There is, however, one danger connected with all this that can 
not be obviated by any efi'ort likely to be put forth under the stim- 
ulus of commerce, or the spirit of trade The danger to 

which we allude is not merely that of worldliness, such as in a com- 
munity always accompanies an increase of wealth, but that the slavery 
now existing there may he strengthened and increased hy the rapid rise 
in the value of labor, and thus become so firmly rooted that the toil 
of ages may be necessary for its removal." * 

As early as 1858, Lord Palmerston took ground in favor of the 
vigorous prosecution of the growing of cotton in Africa. He made 
no objection to the measure on account of the slavery which would 
be employed in its production. He said nothing about the sinful- 
ness of slavery ; because the British Government had never adopt- - 
ed that belief as a rule of action. The theory that slavery is 
sinful, was designed for American use, and as a maxim that might 
overthrow American slavery. In referring to the encouraging 
prospects for cotton culture in Africa, during the debate of July 
13, 1858, he said : 

" I venture to say, that you will find on the west coast of Africa a 
most valuable supply of cotton, so essential to the manufactures of 
this country. It has every advantage for the growth of that article. 
The cotton districts of Africa are more extensive than those of India. 
The access to them is more easy than to the India cotton districts, 
and I venture to say, that your commerce with the western coast of 
Africa in the article of cotton will in a few years prove to be far 

* American Missionary, March, 1859 The italics are the author's. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 579 

more valuable than that of any portion of the world, the United 
States excepted." * 

Details of the progress of cotton culture in Africa, and else- 
where, can not be given here without extending this chapter to 
too great a length. 

It is only necessary, to a clear understanding of the subject of 
the cotton supplies, to state that, up to the close of 1860, no in- 
creased importations of cotton into Great Britain, from either the 
old or the new fields of production, had taken place, to such ex- 
tent as would warrant her manufacturers in entertaining the least 
hope of freeing themselves from continued dependence for that 
staple upon the United States, so long as its production with us 
remained undisturbed. On the contrary, the imports of Great 
Britain, in the aggregate, from the West Indies, Africa, and " other 
countries," which were less by more than two million pounds in 
1860 than they were in 1859, f have suffered a still further dimi- 
nution in 1861. 

Thus, for the year 1861, from every source, the imports of cotton 
into Great Britain, as compared with those of 1860, show an in- 
crease from Africa, the West Indies, and " other countries," of only 
595,280 pounds ; from Brazil, an increase of but 3,472 pounds ; 
and from Egypt, a decrease of 3,061,978 pounds; being, from all 
sources, excepting the East Indies and United States, a total 
deerease below the imports of 1860, of 2,463,406 pounds. From 
the East Indies the increase has been 164,899,280 pounds over the 
imports of 1860, but only 118,702,304 pounds over the imports 
of 1857. These results must greatly disappoint those who were 
anticipating largely increased supplies from other sources than 
the United States. % 

In reference to the extent of the recent supplies of cotton re- 
ceived in Great Britain, from new sources, Mr. William Cross, of 
Farnwarm, near Manchester, says in a communication in the Lon- 
don Post, June 21, 1861 : 

"It has been stated in several newspapers that 40,000 'bales' of 

* Westminster Review, April, 1861. 

t See preceding tabular statement of imports into Great Britain. 

X From Official Reports in the London Economist, March 1, 1862. 



580 PULPIT POLITICS. 

cotton tare been received from fifty-eiglit new or revired sources. 
These statements are erroneous. A bale of cotton is about four hun- 
dred pounds weight, but a large proportion of the so-called bales are 
only -mail sample-bags, containing a few pounds of cotton. Of the 
remi.inder. IS. 924 bales are from Tutieorin. the shipping port of the 
TinnoTelly District : and inasmuch as Tinnovellj cotton has been well 
known to the London and Liverpool cotton merchants durine manv 
years, it is false to describe that district as a new source of supply. 
Down to the present time, notwithstanding the assertions of the Cot- 
ton Supply Association, there has not been received as much cotton 
ftt>m new sources as would find employment for one moderate sized 
eotton-mill during the space of six months : and I believe I am quite 
within the mark when I assert that the several cotton-procuring com- 
panies which have been advertised in Lancashire are not in possession 
of as much paid up capital as would purchase a twelve month's supply 
of cotton for one cotton-mill of moderate dimensions." 

It follows, as a logical deduction from the facts before us. that 
the successful development of the growth of cotton in the tropical 
possessions of Great Britain can onlj be secured by effecting a 
derangement of the labor forces engaged in its production in the 
United States, and that this derangement mtist be effected to such 
an extent as will diminish the production of American cotton, so 
as to give permanency to high prices for that commodity. This 
done, and British capital, in a proportionate degree, can be em- 
ployed safely in both Luiia and Africa for the improvement of the 
quality and the increase of the quantity of their couon. But 
until this is done — until the American planter is crippled or pros- 
trated — British capitalists, as we are assured by advices from 
abroad, will not venture upon extended cotton culture in any por- 
tion of the world. They had hoped to reverse this condition of 
things, and to have lessened the American production of that 
staple, by its increased cultivation in India, but this scheme was 
soon found to be impracticable, and its increased growth in India 
can only succeed by first interrupting its culture in the United 
States. 

Now, on arriving at this point in otir investigations, it is very 
easy to comprehend why the people of Great Britain have made 
such extensive and persevering efforts to promote the abolition of 
slavery in the United States. Emancipation, they very well know, 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 581 

would at once ruin the American planters, and completely destroy 
the production of cotton on their estates. It is also very obvious 
why the English abolitionists, on failing in their schemes in refer- 
ence to the immediate abolition of slavery in this country, have, 
with such perfect unanimity, approved of the proposition of the 
American abolitionists, to confine slavery within the limits of the 
States where it now exists ; because, to prevent the extension of 
Southern slavery, is to diminish the production of our great com- 
mercial staple, and to allow the monopoly of the cotton supplies, 
idtimately, to pass from the hands of our own citizens into those 
of the subjects of Great Britain. 

We do not complain of the English people for using peaceful 
means to place themselves upon an equal footing with those of 
the United States in the competition for the grand prize of sup- 
plying the cotton markets. But we can justly say that the Ameri- 
cans who are playing into their hands are no friends to the com- 
mercial prosperity of their own country. They should be able to 
see that the hostility of the British people, at large, to American 
slavery is not based on moral considerations — as is apparent from 
their being industriously engaged in establishing slavery in Africa, 
as a means of procuring supplies of cotton ; and that, therefore, in 
the present condition of the world, the abolition of slavery in the 
United States must, necessarily, force its establishment in Africa 
upon a footing commensurate with existing demands for tropical 
products, and humanity thereby reap no advantages by the aboli- 
tion of slavery in America. 

The tendency of the abolition movements in the United States 
are now easily discerned. The history of emancipation every- 
where, without exception, proves that the great mass of the blacks 
will not work voluntarily, to any useful extent, beyond what is 
necessary to supply their absolute necessities. The blacks of the 
United States can form no exception to the general rule. Eman- 
cipation in our Southern States, therefore, would be the death 
blow to our cultivation of cotton, as it was in the West Indies to 
the production of both cotton and sugar. * 

The crisis in American cotton culture is now upon us. The 

* The reader will find the facts relating to the AVest Indies in Chapter V, 



OM' PULPIT POLITICS. 

prices have gone up three hundred per cent. With these prices 
prolonged, by the withholding of the American crop from the 
markets for three or four years, but, especially, by the discontin- 
uance of the culture of cotton in the South for want of hands to 
perform the labor, the supplies of cotton from other countries may 
be increased, so that the American crop may be no longer a desid- 
eratum to European manufacturers. Lord Palmcrston seems to 
understand the question in this light. At the late Lord Mayor's 
dinner in London, the American minister, Mr. Adams, being pres- 
ent, the noble Lord, in alluding to the want of cotton from Amer- 
ica, said : 

" That temporary evil will be productive of permanent good — 
(cheers) — and we shall find in various quarters of the globe sure and 
certain and ample supplies, which will render us no longer dependent 
upon one source of production for that which is so necessary for the 
industry and welfare of the country/'* 

Tbe extent of the dependence of Great Britain upon cotton, 
■will be understood when it is stated that the total value of all her 
exports, for the year ending December 31, 1860, f estimating the 
pound sterling at $5,00, was 8679,214,085. Of these exports the 
value of cottons, cotton yarns, etc., of all descriptions was, 3260,- 
067,410 ; raw cotton, 250,428,640 pounds exported, at say 11 cents 
per pound, §27,547,150 ; to this add the British domestic consump- 
tion of cottons, estimated at §120.000,000 ; making British in- 
terests in cotton alone at §407,614,560. 

Reader, can you now comprehend the question of the cotton 
supplies as it affects Great Britain ! 

We do not say that the abolitionists of America desired to 
destroy our cotton cultivation for the benefit of the colonial pos- 
sessions of Great Britain. Their movements may be interpreted 
on other principles. It has been conjectured, by a curious writer, 
that Satan maintains his influence in the world, not. by constant 
attention to every man whom he is able to mislead ^^ because he 
is not omnipresent — but mainly by setting afloat such false max- 



* New York Observer, November, 1861. 
t Londou Ecououiist, ilaich -, 1861. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 583 

ims in society as, on being accepted as rules of conduct, will cor- 
rupt mankind and mislead them to their ruin. 

So it has been in reference to the abolitionists of the United 
States. They have adopted, from time to time, one theory after 
another in reference to slavery, and all of which nearly arc now 
demonstrated to be historically false. These theories, mostly, 
were of foreign origin, and, like the false maxims of Satanic origin, 
were designed to mislead the simple and the unwary. * 

As in the moral and religious aspects of slavery, false maxims 
have prevailed to a ruinous extent, so in reference to its economi- 
cal relations, theories equally untrue and absurd have, from time 
to time, been set afloat, and as eagerly seized upon to promote the 
interests of abolition. Who does not remember the labored at- 
tempts to prove that the Union, to the North, was of but little 
value, pecuniarily — about thirty-nine cents, perhaps, to each per- 
son in the North, according to one abolition organ — and that, 
therefore, the Northern States would be more prosperous were the 
Southern States cast off as a useless burden ! The story of the 
hay crop — not a pound of which is exported, as being of more 
value than the cotton crop, tAvo hundred millions of dollars worth 
of which are exported — is still fresh in the memory of the intel- 
ligent reader. Because, forsooth, we had three hundred millions 
of dollars worth of hay, we could very well do without the two 
hundred millions worth of cotton! The mountaineer gentleman, 
as the joke runs, has a costly pair of spurs and a glossy shirt- 
collar, therefore he has no need of coat or other garments ! 

A few facts will set this point in its true light. Hay, instead 
of being a standard of wealth, is but the indication of severity of 
climate and prolonged winters. This proposition may be illus- 
trated by examples taken from a few of the Northern States, 
which save large quantities of hay, as compared with the same 
number in the South, Avhich save but little hay ; and yet, the 
Southern States are able to subsist a much larger amount of live 
stock, from the ftict that their climate is so favorable as to afford 
pasturage throughout the winter: 

* The preceding Chapters are devoted to the exposure of the false theories 
of the anti-slavery men of the United States. 



584 



PULPIT POLITICS. 



STATES 

New Hampshire. 

Vermont 

Maine 

Connecticut 

Michigan 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

South Carolina... 
Arkansas 



HAY, TDNS. 



598 
866, 
755, 
516, 
404, 
2,'5, 
32, 
12, 
20, 



302,162 
410,123 
385,115 
239,603 
3.33,073 
1,306,238 
915,911 
903,077 
912,340 
364,466 



384,756 
1,014,122 
451,677 
174,181 
746,435 
560,435 
371,880 
304,929 
285,551 
91,256 



63,487 
66,296 
54,598 , 
76,472 ) 
205,847 I 
,168,617 I 
,904,540 ' 
,582,734 
,065,503 
836,727 



But we must not dwell upon the absurdities of these ruinous 
theories, gotten up to familiarize the public mind, at the North, 
with the idea of disunion. 

Another topic claims attention, as illustrating, more fully, the 
facility with which errors on economical questions, as well as upon 
moral ones, may be propagated. When our national difficulties 
were approaching a crisis — with an object in view not requiring 
notice here — the attempt was made to create the impression that 
Europe was not so dependent upon American cotton as had been 
represented. Statements were set afloat which were calculated to 
deceive the careless thinker; and which did deceive tens of thou- 
sands of men, otherwise intelligent and guarded in their acceptance 
of theories and maxims. Take an example of a later date, as 
representing the whole, and which is as amusing to the public, as 
it must now be mortifying to its victim : 

The senior editor of the New York Observer — a religious paper 
always in opposition to abolition — on retiring to his country seat, 
in the forepart of the summer of 1861, thus wrote : 

•' Ten years hence India will furnish as much cotton within a trifle 
as America will, even if the rate of increase continues in this country 
as rapidly in the next ten years as it has in the last decade of years." 

This opinion of the editor was based on the statements made in 
an article in the North British Review, which contained the esti- 
mates of the increase alone in the British supplies of cotton, from 
the several cotton-growing countries, from 1850 to 1857. The 
Review says : 



During that period the increase of 300,000,000 pounds, in round 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE, 585 

numbers, in our imports of cotton was furnislied by tbe following 
countries : 

POUNDS. 

United States 161,604,906 

Egypt 5,910,730 

West Indies 1,184,667 

East Indies 131,405,402 

Africa and others 5,895,462 

The article quoted appeared in the course of the summer of 1861. 
The deception practiced is in the selection of the seven years 
ending with 1857. The years 1850, 1851, and 1857, gave short 
crops in the United States, and there was consequently a largely 
increased importation from India, because of the increased prices. 
Had the contrast been made between India and America for the 
years 1858, 1859, and 1860, the iricrease of imports into England 
would have ranged so as to lead to a very different conclusion 
from that indorsed by the Observer. It was as follows : 

POUNDS. 

United States, increase 383,486,768 

East Indies, increase, 1....1 65,887,808 

"West Indies and other coiintries, decrease 196,224 

Egypt, increase 9,077,224 

Brazil, increase 820,064 

These statistics tell a very diiferent story, as to the present con- 
dition of the cotton supplies, from those quoted by the New York 
Observer. 

Again, the Observer quotes from the Revieiv : 

" If we take tbe fourteen years from 1843 to 1857, we find that the 
cotton countries increased their shipments to England as follows : 

PER CENT. 

United States 15 

Egypt 140 

Brazil 54 

East Indies 288 

Africa 300 

A still greater deception is here practiced upon the careless read- 
er, by giving results in per cents., than even by the mode of contrast 
above noticed. The year 1843 gave 65,709,729 pounds of cotton 



586 PULPIT POLITICS. 

from India — a much less quantity than in the two preceding 
years ; while 1857 gave 250,388,144 pounds — a great increase over 
that of any year before or since, except 1861. The premeditated 
deception here practiced is apparent, when it is further stated, 
that, owing to our short crop, England received 125,281,978 
pounds less from us in 1857 than she had the previous year, and 
461,132,560 pounds less than in 1860. Had the contrast been 
drawn between the years 1857 and 1860, the result, instead of 
showing an increase from India, would have presented a decrease 
of twenty-three per cent. The increase from Africa may have 
been at the rate of three hundred per cent., but then the whole 
imports from the favored African districts of Lagos and Abbeo- 
kuta, in 1857, were only 35,000 pounds. 
And, again, the Observer quotes : 

" If we take the import of 1857 as the basis, and assume the in- 
crease of the fourteen succeeding years to be in the same ratio, the 
rate of increase in 1871 will be as follows : 

POUNDS. 

United States 753,911,754 

East Indies 720,973,853 

Brazil 45,464,464 

Egypt 31,216,849 

Africa and others 23,758,480 

It is only necessary, in noticing this formidable array of figures, 
to say that the imports of cotton into Great Britain from the 
United States, for 1860, were 1,115,890,608 pounds, or 362,297,- 
854 pounds in excess of what it was to be, according to the Ob- 
server, in 1871 ; and that the supplies from India, in 1860, instead 
of having increased at the rate of two hundred and eighty-eight 
per cent., were actually decreased below those of 1857, to the 
amount of 45,196,976 pounds ! Brazil, too, instead of having 
had an increase betvreen 1857 and 1860, supplied less in the latter 
year than in the former by 12,623,968 pounds. Egypt alone sup- 
plied more in 1860 than in 1857, but less in 1861 than in 1860. 

These examples of the manner in which the most absurd and 
erroneous propositions may be set afloat and accepted as true, 
must suffice as illustrations of the mode in which the public mind 
in the United States has been misled on the subject of slavery. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 587 

A rrTx ii-k or two, and we have done. It will be seen that the 
a.nount t f cotton imported from India, by Great Britain, in 1861, 
though (ne hundred and sixty-four millions pounds larger than 
during ths year 1860, is only a little over one hundred and eighteen 
millions more than her imports were in 1857. Her imports 
from the United States during the year, have been 819,500,528 
pounds, ;J1 of which, nearly, must have been shipped before the 
blockade of our ports. As this is considerably more than she 
received ii'om us in the whole of the year 1858, or any preceding 
year, it ia evident that the loss of the American cotton crop is 
only beginning to be felt in its full force in England. Indeed, the 
London Economist, in its estimates, showed that, by working short 
time, the manufacturers, with the supplies on hand, might avoid 
much suffering until the first of July of the present year ; but 
that the strange counter-movement of reexporting cotton largely 
from Liverpool back to New" England, in consequence of the ad- 
vantages gained by the American manufacturer through the Mor- 
rill tariff, would probably bring on the crisis by the first of May. 

In relation to the chances that the East Indies might gain such 
advantages, by the American war, as to secure to itself the markets 
of Great Britain, the Economist, January 25, 1862, says : 

"Such au eutire misapprehensiou appears to prevail on this subject, 
and such strange and transparent delusions are daily propagated 
through the various organs of the Press as to the true merits of the 
controversy, that we must endeavor, even at the risk of repeating our- 
selves and wearying our more attentive readers, to explain once for all 
the real facts — or rather the one fact — which lies at the root of the 
competition between cotton the growth of the slave States of America, 

and cotton the growth of our own East India possessions 

It is the more essential that the public should clearly understand the 
matter in hand, because we find among many sagacious persons the 
impression that if the India cotton can only Jiave a year or two's start, 
so as to establish itself in the British market, it will be able to hold 
its strong ground and even to supersede the American ; that this year 
or two will be secured to it by a continuance of the civil war and the 
blockade ; and that, therefore, we ought rather to rejoice at than to 
deprecate that continuance. The notion is so wholly fallacious, and 
so very mischievous, that no time ought to be lost in eradicating it. 
The case is briefly this. India cotton has for the last 



588 PULPIT POLITICS. 

half century been as well known and as habitually used in this coun- 
try as American cotton. It has been just as regular an article of im- 
port and consumption as its rival It has always reached 

us in the quantities requisite to supplemc7it the American crop. When 
the latter was abundant, comparatively little Surat* was used; when 

it was scanty, the demand for Surat increased The Orleans 

cotton was always worth just half as much again as the Surat, for 
nearly all purposes for which the latter could be used at all, i. c, for 

the coarser yarns and fabrics When Orleans could be 

purchased at 3d or 4dl a pound, the consumption of Surat almost 

ceased The explanation of this is very simple. The 

fibre of the Orleans cotton is much longer, more even, and more silky 

than that of Surat So much of the Surat cotton falls 

down as dust, or flies off as dust and flock, in the process of working it 
into yarn, that a pound of it makes much less yarn or cloth than a pound 
of Orleans. Being shorter in fibre, also, it requires more twisting to 
give it the required strength, and, therefore, can not be made into 
yarn so fast. From these two causes, its value to the manipulator is 
never more than two-thirds that of an equal weight of its American 
rival — and never can be more, whatever improvements and adaptations 
of machinery may be introduced, so long as its quality and character 
remain unaltered — for not only is its quality inferior, but its character 

is peculiar The plain, simple, conclusive truth is that 

the American cotton has more in it than the India The 

moment the American cotton reiippears in Liverpool, it will resume its 
old position of superiority The American and India cot- 
ton are specifically different The cultivation of the im- 
ported article has never been able to spread — the plain truth being 

that the one is a natural and the other an artificial cultivation 

But of this we are confident — till Africa is settled and civilized, the 
Southern States of the Union will always be the cheapest and best 
cotton field in the world." f 

The "cotton question" can now be comprehended by the reader; 
and the disastrous effects of either the prolongation of the war, 
or the emancipation of the slaves, upon the manufactures and 
commerce of Great Britain, as well as of France, can be easily 
discerned. In all other cotton producing regions, of any practical 

* Surat is the trade name for India cotton, and Orleans for the American, 
t The italics are the Economist's own, throughout the quotations. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COxMMERCE. 589 

importance, there has been a reduction of exports ; and the East 
India cotton can not be made to supersede the American. These 
are the present facts. 

Our government, therefore, by a wise policy, might have con- 
tinued to enjoy the monopoly of the cotton markets, and to reap 
the rich rewards it secured. But there is a party in England, 
alluded to by the Economist, who believe that the British colonies 
can be restored to their former prosperity, and the owners of the 
ruined estates elevated from poverty to opulence, by the prostra- 
tion of the American planter ; and we have in our midst an asso- 
ciation of men who boast that they are sustained, by the munifi- 
cence of Englishmen, in their labors for the destruction of the 
Constitution and the Union, as a means of putting an end to cot- 
ton culture by slave labor ; and they well know that the negro, 
when free, lies as an incubus upon the country which retains him. 
As to the colonization which they propose, it is all a delusion ; it 
is wholly impracticable, except by force, and would be the destruc- 
tion of the colored people subjected to the experiment. 

We have also had a party in this country, who grieved over the 
loss, by the South, of the direct trade with Europe, and who im- 
agined that they could, by a dissolution of the Union, secure to 
themselves not only the advantages of the commerce based upon 
the crops of tobacco, rice, and cotton ; but that they would also, 
by political independence, become the most prosperous nation in 
the world. 

These two parties may be considered as having had their chief 
seats in New England and South Carolina. Both Avere struggling 
for the same object, the overthrow of the Republic. The seces- 
sionist desired the dissolution of the Union, that he might retain 
and enlarge his slave labor forces, secure a direct trade with 
foreign nations, and maintain the monopoly of the cotton markets 
of the world. The abolitionist wanted the secessionist out of the 
Union, but not until he should be robbed of his slaves, so that the 
American cotton monopoly might be destroyed forever, and British 
subjects be enabled thereby to recover the losses arising from their 
philanthropic experiments with the negro. These objects were 
not all openly avowed ; but that they formed a part of the designs 



590 PULPIT POLITICS. 

in the abolition movement, has been apparent from the first to 
discerning men. 

This, then, is the nature of the conflict in which we are engaged. 
The success of secession will lessen the foreign commerce of the 
nation, at once, to the extent of more than two hundred millions 
of dollars. The success of abolition will lessen it to an equal ex- 
tent ; and, at the same time, it will reduce the Southern States to 
the condition of Mexico, which is able only to raise its own bread, 
and has less than two millions of dollars of annual exports of 
agricultural products. 

Now, a word here, as to the position of the Great West. The 
success of secession deprives us of the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi, and presents us as humble suppliants at the footstool of 
the South, for a market for our surplus products. We must pay 
them tribute, or have the fruits of our labor left to rot upon our 
hands. The success of abolition leaves us in precisely the same 
condition, as to a loss of our Southern markets, excepting the 
payment of tribute. The South, with four millions of free negroes, 
can not carry on its cotton culture, as all past experience proves ; 
and can not, therefore, continue to purchase the productions of 
the West. In either case, therefore, the West will be ruined. 

And, here, those who laughed at Mr. Lincoln, for talking of 
giving " protection " to Western corn, will find, perhaps, that there 
■was more meaning in it than at first appeared to the minds of the 
iron masters, who called out the remark. Illinois and Iowa 
understand, now, the necessity of protection to their corn. The 
Southern market cut ofi", leaves them with only the Eastern market, 
and many, many leagues of railroads between their corn-cribs 
and the purchasers of their corn. Sixty-five cents per bushel, in 
New York, they may get; but they must pay fifty-five for its 
transportation, besides commissions. Truly they need protection ; 
and that protection can only be found in the preservation of the 
Constitution and the Union — in the recovery of the navigation 
of the Mississippi — and, for this, their sons are pouring out their 
blood like water. 



THE COTTON CROP AND AMERICAN COMMERCE. 591 

Note. — January, 1863, finds the publishers issuing a fifth 
edition of this work. The author, preferring facts to specula- 
tions, embraces the opportunity to strike out the closing remarks 
of this chapter, as included in the previous editions, and to sub- 
stitute the latest information upon the all-absorbing question of 
the "Cotton supplies." 

At pages 570 and 579, the condition of that question is given 
up to 1860 and to 1861. 

For the first ten months of 1862, according to the London 
Economist, the imports into Great Britain, as compared with 
the same period in 1861, stood as follows, all sources being in- 
cluded : 

1861. 1862. 

cwts. cwts. 

United States, 7.312,654 60,519 

Brazil, 120,459 168,347 

Egypt, 311,185 429,464 

British East Indies, 2,305,447 2,190,604 

Other countries, 53,778 227,139 

Total, 10,103,523 3,076,073 

The increased supplies of cotton, from all sources except the 
United States, for the ten months ending October 31st, 1862, 
it will be seen, have been but little more than 25,000,000 lbs. — 
being less than one week's supply for the European looms, when 
working full time, as in 1858. 

The present utter helplessness of the European manufacturer, 
in the absence of the American cotton crop, can now be under- 
stood. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATION TO PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 

We can not select a better introduction to this closing chapter 
than the following extract from the eloquent Burke : 

" Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No 
sound ought to he heard in the Church hut the voice of healing charity. 
The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that 
of religion, by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper 
character, to assume what does not belong to them, are, for the greater 
part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the character 
they assume. Wholly unacquainted with the world, in which they 
are so fond of meddling, and inexperienced in all its affairs, on which 
they pronounce with so much confidence, they know nothing of poli- 
tics but the passions they excite. Surely the church is a place where 
one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities 
of mankind." 

Section I. — The Clergy of New England and the War 
OF 1812. 

To afford the reader a correct idea of the extent to which cler- 
gymen may be roused by political controversy, and the reproach 
which they may bring upon religion by yielding to the excite- 
ments of the day, we need only refer to the character of the 
preaching in New England, in relation to the War of 1812.* 
The quotations are taken from sermons of New England clergy- 
men who opposed the war, and threw the whole weight of their 
influence upon the side of the politicians who labored to embar- 
rass the Government in defending itself against a foreign foe. 

* "We copy from the Olive Branch, a volume published by the venerable 
Matthew Carey, in 1815. 
(592) 



THE CLERGY AND THE WAR OF 1812. 593 

The bitterness of that controversy is little known to the people 
of the present day, but may be inferred from the violence of the 
pulpit productions which it elicited. A few extracts only can be 
given, as our volume is already swelled much beyond the size at 
first contemplated. It will be seen, from the very first sentences 
quoted, that New England clergymen were talking of secession — 
of "cutting the connection" — as early as 1812; and that Mr. 
Quincy, of Boston, before quoted, was not alone in his opinions 
of the duty of dissolving the Union. 

The Rev. Mr. Gardiner, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, 
July 23, 1812, in his sermon on Psalm cxx : 7, said : 

" The alternative is, that if you do not wish to become the slaves of 
those "WHO OWN SLAVES, and who are themselves slaves of French 
slaves, you must either, in the language of the day, cut the connec- 
tion, or so far alter the national compact as to insure yourselves a due 
share in the government." 

" Let no considerations whatever, my brethren, deter you, at all times, 
and in all places, from execrating the present war. It is a war unjust, 
foolish, and ruinous. It is unjust, because Great Britain has of- 
fered us every concession short or what she conceives would 

BE her ruin." 

"As Mr. Madison has declared war, let Mr. Madison carry it on." 
" The Union has been long since virtually dissolved, and it 

is full time that this part of the disunited States should 

take care op itself." 

The Rev. David Osgood, D. D., Pastor of the church at Med- 
ford, said : 

" If, at the command of weak or wicked rulers, they undertake 
an unjust war, each man who volunteers his services in such a cause, 
or loans his money for its support, or, by his conversation, his writings, 
or any other mode of influence, encourages its prosecution, tliat man is 
an accomplice in the wickedness, loads his conscience with the blackest 
crimes — brings the guilt of blood upon his soul, and — in the sight 
OF God and his Law, is a murderer." 

"My mind has been in a constant agony, not so much at the inevit- 
able loss of our temporal prosperity and happiness, and the complicated 
miseries of war, as at its guilt, its outrage against heaven, against all 
38 



594 PULPIT POLITICS. 

truth, honesty, justice, goodness — against all the principles of social 
happiness." 

" Were not the authors op this war in character nearly akin to 
the deists and atheists of France ; were they not men of hardened 
hearts, seared consciences, reprobate minds, and desperate wickedness, 
it seems utterly inconceivable that they should have made the declar- 
ation." 

" One hope only remains, that this stroke of perfidy may open the 
eyes of a besotted people ; that they may awake, like a giant from his 
slumbers, and wreak their vengeance on their betrayers, by 
driving them from their stations, and placing at the helm more skill- 
ful and faithful hands." 

Rev. Elijah Parish, in a discourse delivered at Byfield, said : 

" Such is the temper of American republicans, so-called. A new 
language must be invented before we attempt to express the baseness 
of their conduct, or describe the rottenness of their hearts." 

" New England, if invaded, would be obliged to defend herself Do 
you not, then, owe it to your children, and owe it to your God, to make 
peace for yourselves?" ' 

"A thousand times as many sons of America have probably fallen 
victims of this ungodly war as perished in Israel by the edict of Pha- 
roah. Still the war is only beginning. If ten thousand have fallen, ten 
thousand times ten thousand may fall."-!^ 

" Should the English now be at liberty to send all their armies and 
all their ships to America, and, in one day, burn every city from Maine 
to Georgia, your condescending riders looidd play on their harps, while 
they gaze at the tremendous conflagration." 

" Here we must trample on the mandates of despotism ! or here we 
must remain slaves forever." .r 

" You may envy the privilege of Israel, and mourn that no land of 
Canaan has been promised to your ancestors. You can not separate 
from that mass of corruption, which would poison the atmosphere of 
Paradise. You must, in obstinate despair, bow down your necks to the 
yoke, and, with your African brethren, drag the chains of Virginia des- 
potism, unless you discover some other mode of escape." 

* " Those who take the trouble of multiplying, will find that ten thousand 
times ten thousand make 100,000,000, who are to perish out of a population 
of 8,000,000!"— Oit't-e Branch. 



THE CLERGY AND THE AVAR OF 1812. 595 

" Let every man who sanctions this war by his suffrage or influence, 
remember that he is laboring to cover himself and his country with 
blood. The blood op the slain will cry from the ground 

AGAINST HIM ! " 

" How will the supporters of this anti-Christian warfare endure their 
sentence — endure their own reflections — endure the fire that forever 
burns — the worm which never dies — the hosannas of heaven — while 

THE SMOKE OP THEIR TORMENTS ASCENDS FOREVER AND EVER ! " 

We could multiply extracts, but here are enough to prove that 
clergymen, on political questions, are about as liable to be wrong 
as right. As these are some of the clerical gentlemen referred 
to in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, page 445, volume VI, we 
shall present his views upon the question of ministers preaching 
politics in the pulpit. 

" On one question only I differ from him, (Kev. Mr. McLeod, of 
New York City,) and it is that which constitutes the subject of his 
first discourse, the right of discussing public affairs in the pulpit. I 
add the last words, because I admit the right in general conversation 
and in writing ; in which last form it has been exercised in the valu- 
able book you have now favored me with. 

" The mass of human concerns, moral and physical, is so vast, the 
field of knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best 
advantage is so extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole 
himself, and much less in that degree necessary for the instruction of 
others. It has, of necessity, then, been distributed into different 
departments, each of which, singly, may give occupation enough to 
the whole time and attention of a single individual. Thus we have 
teachers of Languages, teachers of Mathematics, of Natural Philoso- 
phy, of Chemistry, of Medicine, of Law, of History, of Government, 
etc. Religion, too, is a separate department, and happens to be the 
only one deemed requisite for all men, however high or low. Collec- 
tions of men associate together, under the name of congregations, and 
employ a religious teacher of the particular sect of opinions of which 
they happen to be, and contribute to make up a stipend as a compen- 
sation for the trouble of delivering them, at such periods as they agree 
on, lessons in the religion they profess. If they want instruction in 
other sciences or arts, they apply to other instructors; and this is 
generally the business of early life. But I suppose there is not an 



596 PULPIT POLITICS. 

instance of a single congregation which has emplx)yed their preacher 
for the mixed purpose of lecturing them from the pulpit in Chemistry, 
in Medicine, in Law, in the science and principles of Government, or 
anything hut Religion exclusively. Whenever, therefore, preachers, 
instead of a lesson in religion, put them off with a discourse on the 
Copernican system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of gov- 
ernment, or the characters or conduct of those administering it, it is 
a breach of contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service 
for which they are salaried, and giving them, instead of it, what they 
did not want, or, if wanted, would rather seek from better sources in 
that particular art or science. In choosing our pastor we look to his 
religious qualifications, without inquiring into his physical or political 
dogmas, with which we mean to have nothing to do. I am aware that 
arguments may be found, which may twist a thread of politics into the 
cord of religious duties. So may they for every other branch of human 
art or science. Thus, for example, it is a religious duty to obey the 
laws of our country ; the teacher of religion, therefore, must instruct 
us in those laws, that we may know how to obey them. It is a religi- 
ous duty to assist our sick neighbors ; the preacher must, therefore, 
teach us medicine, that we may do it understandingly. It is a religi- 
ous duty to preserve our own health ; our religious teacher, then, must 
tell us what dishes are unwholesome, and give us recipes in cookery, 
that we may learn how to prepare them. And so, ingenuity, by gen- 
eralizing more and more, may amalgamate all the branches of science 
into any one of them, and the physician who is paid to visit the sick, 
may give a sermon instead of medicine, and the merchant to whom 
money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief instead of it. But 
notwithstanding this possible confusion of all sciences into one, com- 
mon sense draws lines between them sufficiently distinct for the gen- 
eral purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to understand that a recipe 
in Medicine or Cookery, or a demonstration in Geometry, is not a lesson 
in religion. I do not deny that a congregation may, if they please, 
agree with their preacher that he shall instruct them in Medicine also, 
or Law, or Politics. Then, lectures in these, from the pulpit, become 
not a matter of right, but of duty also. But this must be with the 
consent of every individual; because the association being voluntary, 
the mere majority has no right to apply the contributions of the minor- 
ity to purposes unspecified in the agreement of the congregation. I 
agree, too, that, on all occasions, the preacher has the right, equally with 
every other citizen, to express his sentiments, in speaking or writing, 



THE CLERGY AND THE CONGRESS OF THE U. S., 1854. 597 

on the subject of Medicine, Law, Politics, etc., his leisure time being 
his own, and his congregation not obliged to listen to his conversation 
or to read his writings ; and no one would have regretted more than 
myself, had any scruple as to this right withheld from us the valuable 
discourses which have led to the expression of an opinion as to the 
true limits of the right. I feel my portion of indebtment to the rev- 
erend author for the distinguished learning, the logic, and the elo- 
quence with which he has proved that religion, as well as reason, con- 
firms the soundness of those principles on which our Government has 
been founded, and its rights asserted. 

" These are my views on the question. They are in opposition to 
those of the highly respected and able preacher, and are, therefore, 
the more doubtingly oflered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, 
and inquiry to truth ; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere 
object of us both. We value too much the freedom of opinion sanc- 
tioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in 
opposition to ourselves. 

" Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery, in the expi'ession of my 
opinions, I have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by 
your letter and present. And although I have not the honor of your 
acquaintance, this mark of attention, and still more the sentiments of 
esteem so kindly expressed in your letter, are entitled to a confidence 
that observations not intended for the public will not be ushered to 
their notice as has happened to me sometimes. Tranquillity, at my age, 
is the balm of life. 

" While I know I am safe in the honor of a McLeod, I do not wish 
to be cast forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and the Robespierres of 
the Priesthood ; I mean the Parishes, the Ogdens, and the Gardiners 
of Massachusetts. " Thomas Jefferson. 

" MONTICELLO, March 13, 1815." 

Section II. — The three thousand and fifty Clergymen of 
New England, and the Congress of 1854. 

In 1854, during the Kansas-Nebraska controversy, three thou- 
sand and fifty clergymen of New England forwarded a protest 
to the United States Senate, against the passage of the Ne- 
braska Bill. 

This protest, on being presented to the Senate, led to much 
excitement and considerable debate. The opinions expressed by 



593 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the senators who took part in the discussion, are of great in- 
terest, as embodying the sentiments of public men of eminence 
upon the question under consideration. They are important 
also, as presenting a faithful index to the general sentiment of 
the public at large, on the question of the interference of cler- 
gymen in the political agitations of the country, and should be 
well considered by the spiritual teachers of the people. The 
question is not, whether clergymen have the same rights, poli- 
tically, as other citizens ; this no one denies ; but their indul- 
gence in political preaching, or their separate action in reference 
to political topics, presents a subject for prudential consideration 
alone, as it affects their usefulness among those amidst whom 
they labor. See how the matter presents itself in a practical 
way. On none of the questions in relation to slavery, or any 
other one connected with party politics, are the clergymen united 
in opinion. "What, then, are the uuevangelized portion of the 
community to think, when they see one party of ministers of 
the Gospel come before the legislative councils of the nation, de- 
manding, in the name of Almighty God, the adoption of a par- 
ticular course of policy ; while another party, equally respectable, 
present themselves before the same authorities, demandilig, in 
the same sacred name, the very opposite policy ? Surely, before 
the world at large, such a scene could be viewed only as a solemn 
farce ! 

Protest of 3,050 New England Clergymen, op all Denomina- 
tions AND Sects in New England, remonstrating against the 

PASSAGE OF the NEBRASKA BiLL. 

'■'■To the Honorable^ the Senate and House of 

Representatives, in Congress assembled: — 

" The undersigned, clergyuien of diflPereut religious denominations 
in New England, hereby, in the name of Almighty God, and in his 
presence, do solemnly protest against the passage of what is known 
as the Nebraska Bill, or any repeal or modification of the existing 
legal prohibitions of slavery in that part of our national domain which 
it is proposed to organize into the territories of Nebraska and Kan- 
sas. We protest against it as a great moral wrong, as a breach of 



THE CLERGY, AND THE CONGRESS OF THE U. S., 1854. 599 

faitli eminently unjust to the moral principles of the community, and 
subversive of all confidence in national engagements; as a measure 
full of danger to the peace and even the existence of our beloved 
Union, and exposing us to the righteous judgments of the Almighty : 
and your protestants, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 
"BosTOK, jNIassachusetts, March 1, 1854." 

The presentation of this document brought on a full and free 
discussion of the subject, from which we can make but a very 
few extracts. 

Mr. Mason said : 

" I trust I shall never see the day when the Senate of the United 
States will treat the authors of such petitions, upon any si^bject proper 
fot legislation pending before the body, coming from the people of 
the United States, with aught but respect. But I understand this 
petition to come from a class who have put aside their character of 
citizens. It comes from a class who style themselves, in the petition, 
ministers of the Gospel, and not citizens. They come before us — I 
have not understood the petition wrong, I believe — as ministers of 
the Gospel, not citizens, and denounce prospectively the action of the 
Senate, in their language, as a moral wrong ; and they have the temer- 
ity, ill the presence of the people of the United States, to invoke the 
vengeance of the Almighty, whom they profess to serve, against us. 
Sir, ministers of the Gospel are unknown to this Government, and 
God forbid the day should ever come when they shall be known to 
it. .The great effort of the American people has been, by every form 
of defensive measures, to keep that class away from the Government ; 
to deny to them any access to it as a class, or any interference in its 
proceedings. The best illustration of the wisdom of that measure in 
our Government is to be found in this. Ministers of the Gospel, I 
repeat, are unknown to the Government. Of all others, they are the 
most encroaching, and, as a body, arrogant class of men. . . , 
If thirty thousand, or three hundred thousand citizens come from 
New England, let them be heard ; but when they come here, not as 
citizens, but declaring that they come as ministers of the Gospel, and, 
as the honorable Senator from Texas declared them to be, vicegerents 
of the Almighty — so I understood him to declare, possibly he meant 
vice-regents to supervise and control the legislation of the country — 
I say, when they come here as a class unknown to the Government, 



600 PULPIT POLITICS. 

a class that tlie Government does not mean to know in any form or 
shape, not to recommend or remonstrate, but to denounce our action as 
a great moral wrong, because they claim to be the ' vicegerents ' of the 
Almighty, we are bound — not from disrespect to them as citizens, not 
from disrespect to the cloth which they do not grace, but from respect 
to the Government, from respect to the sacred public trust which has 
been committed to us — to carry out the policy of the Government 
and refuse to recognize them. Sir, their object, as was well said by 
the Senator from Illinois, has been agitation — agitation ; and I pre- 
sume that their cloth and their ministry will enable them to agitate 
with some success." 

Mr. Butler said : 

" I have great respect, Mr. President, for the pulpit. I have such 
a respect for it that I would almost submit to a rebuke from a minister 
of the Gospel, even in my official capacity ; but they lose a portion of 
my respect when I see an organization, for, I believe, the first time in 
the history of this Government, of clergymen within a local precinct, 
within the limits of New England, assuming to be, as the Senator 
from Texas said, the vicegerents of Heaven, coming to the Senate of 
the United States, not as citizens, as my friend from Virginia ha? 
said, but as the organs of God — for they do not come here petitioning 
or presenting their views under the sanction of the obligations and 
responsibilities of citizens under the Constitution of the United States, 
but they have dared to quit the pulpit, and step into the political 
arena, and speak as the organs of Almighty God, Sir, they assume 
to be the foremen of the jury which is to pronounce the verdict and 
judgment of God upon earth. They do not protest as ordinary citi- 
zens do ; but they mingle in their protest what they would have us 
believe is the judgment of the Almighty. When the clergy quit the 
province which is assigned to them, in which they can dispense the 
Gospel — that Gospel which is represented as the lamb, not as the tiger 
or the lion — when they would convert the lamb into the lion, going 
about in the form of agitators, seeking whom they may devour, instead 
of the meek and lowly representatives of Christ, they divest them- 
selves of all respect which I can give them. Sir, the ministers of the 
Gospel are the representatives of the lowly and poor lamb — of Christ ; 
but when the men who have signed that paper — I do not know with 
what ends ; I do not say a word against them as individuals, for I 



THE CLERGY, AND THE CONGRESS OF THE U. S., 1854. 601 

have no doubt they are good and respectable, and many jf them 
Christians — assume to organize themselves as clergymen, to come be- 
fbre the country and protest against the deliberations of the Senate 
of the United States, they deserve, at least, the grave censure of the 
body." 

Mr. Adams, of Mississippi, said : 

" I trust I have as high a regard for their vocation as any other in- 
dividual, and as much respect for the ministers of peace and good-will 
on earth as any other individual ; but when they depart from their high 
vocation, and come down to mingle in the turbid pools of politics, I 
would ti-eat them just as I would all other citizens. I would treat 
their memorials and remonstrances precisely as I would those of other 
citizens. It is so unlike the apostles and the ministers of Christ at an 
early day, that it loses the potency which they suppose the styling them- 
selves ministers of the Gospel would give to their memorials. The 
early ministers of Christ attended to their mission, one which was given 
to them by their Master ; and under all circumstances, even when the 
Savior himself was upon earth, and attempts were made to induce him 
to give opinions with reference to the municipal affairs of the govern- 
ment, he refused. These men have descended from their high estate 
to assail the action of this body. The Senator from Massachusetts, 
(Mr. Everett,) in presenting the petition, has done what he considered 
to be his duty ; but I would remark, however, that with all the respect 
which belongs to the high character of those individuals as ministers 
of the Gospel, their petition should, under the circumstances, receive no 
more respect from us than if it came from any other private citizens." 

Mr. Douglas said : 

■' Now, sir, what is this remonstrance ? These men do not protest as 
citizens. They do not protest in the name either of themselves or of 
their fellow-citizens. They do not even protest in their own names, as 
clergymen, against this act, but they say that ' WE protest in the 
NAME OP Almighty God ;' and in order to make it more emphatic, 
that they claim to speak by authority in their remonstrance, they un- 
derscore, in broad black lines, the words ' IN the name op Almighty 
God.' It is true, that they describe themselves as ministers of the 
Gospel, but they claim to speak in the name of the Almighty on a 
political question pending in the Congress of the United States. It 



602 PULPIT POLITICS. 

is an attempt to establish in tliis country the doctrine that a body of 
men, organized and known among the people as clergymen, have a 
peculiar right to determine the will of God in relation to legislative 
action. It is an attempt to establish a theocracy to take charge of our 
politics and our legislation. It is an attempt to make the legislative 
power of this country subordinate to the Church. It is not only to 
unite Church and State, but it is to put the State in subordination to 
the dictates of the Church. Sir, you can not find, in the most despotic 
countries, in the darkest ages, a bolder attempt on the part of the min- 
isters of the Gospel to usurp the power of government, and to say to 
the people : ' You must not think for yourselves ; you must not dare 
to act for yourselves ; you must, in all matters pertaining to the affairs 
of this life, as well as the next, receive instructions from us ; and that, 
too, in the performance of your civil and official, as well as your relig- 
ious duties.' 

" Sir, I called attention to this matter for the purpose of showing that 
it involved a great principle subversive of our free institutions. If we 
recognize three thousand clergymen as having a higher right to inter- 
pret the will of God than we have, we destroy the right of self-action. 
of self-government, of self-thought, and we are merely to refer each of 
our political questions to this body of clergymen, to inquire of them 
whether it is in conformity with the law of God and the will of the 
Almighty, or not. This document, I repeat, purports to speak in the 
name of Almighty God, and then enters a protest in that name. We 
are put under the ban, we are excommunicated, the gates of heaven are 
closed, unless we obey this behest, and stop in our course and carry out 
these abolition views. 

" The Senator from Texas says the people have a right to petition. 
I do not question it. I do not wish to deprive ministers of the Gospel 
of that right. I do not acknowledge that there is any member of this 
body who has a higher respect and veneration either for a minister of 
the Gospel, or for his holy calling, than I have ; but my respect is for 
him in his calling. I will not controvert what the Senator from Mas- 
sachusetts has said as to there being, perhaps, no body of men in this 
country, three thousand in number, who combine more respectability 
than these clergymen. Probably they combine all the i-^.spectability 
which he claims for them ; but I will add, that I doubt whether there 
is a body of men in America who combine so much profound ignorance 
on the question upon which they attempt to enlighten the Senate, as this 
same body of preachers. How many of them, do you suppose, sir, have 



THE CLERGY AXD THE CONGRESS OF 1854. 603 

ever taken up and read tlie act of 1820, to which I allude? Do you 
think there is one of them who has done so ? How many of them 
ever re^d the votes by which the North repudiated that act of 1820? 
Do you think one of them ever did? How many of them ever read 
the various votes which I quoted on that act and the Arkansas act? 
Do you think one of them knew anything about them ? How many 
of them have ever traced the course of the compromise measures of 
1850 on record? One of them ? Yet they assume, in the name of the 
Almighty, to judge of fticts, and laws, and votes, of which they know 
nothing, and which they have no time to understand, if they perform 
their duties, as clergymen, to their respective flocks. 

" They do not pretend to judge from the knowledge of this world, 
from the records of the Senate, or from the statute-book, or from any 
of the sources of information on which Senators and citizens predicate 
their action ; but by the will and the law of God, and in his name, and 
in consequence of their divine mission, they overrule all these, and pre- 
scribe a new test, and, in that name, they tell us that, by the passage 
of the bill which we have passed, we have committed a moral wrong. 
They tell us that it is subversive of all confidence in national engage- 
ments. 

•' Now, let me ask, are these men particularly tenacious of national 
engagements? Did they, in their pulpits, in 1850 and 1851, tell their 
followers that they were bound by their oaths, and by their religious 
duty, to surrender fugitive slaves in obedience to the Constitution ? 
Did they tell their people that they must perform national engage- 
ments ? Did they then tell their flocks that the Senate was right in 
carrying out the provisions of the Constitution ? Have they been 
particularly in the habit of enjoining in the pulpit and from the sacred 
desk, as a matter of conscience, that the people should perform the 
national engagements contained in the Constitution of our country, 
and which we are all sworn to support ? Sir, I do not remember that 
any one of these three thousand preachers, at the time when in Boston 
and other points of this country there were attempts to resist the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law by force, came forward and said it was a divine duty to 
perform national engagements. If they did, I have not seen the evi- 
dence of it. If they felt it was a matter of conscience and of duty on 
the part of the clergy to supervise the fulfillment of national engage- 
ments, to preserve the public faith, and the public honor, where were 
they then? when your Constitution was trampled upon, when oaths 
of office could not bind men to perform their constitutional duty, when 



604 PULPIT POLITICS. 

public honor was being outraged, where then were these three thou- 
sand clergymen? We did not hear from them on that occasion. 
There was a national engagement which no man can deny ; yet they 
did not raise their voices against its violation. But in this case, 
merely because some abolitionists from this body have said that an 
act of Congress constituted a national engagement, although the state- 
ment is contradicted by the record, they come forward at the bidding 
of an abolition junta, to arraign the Senate of the United States in 
the name of the Almighty ! 

"Sir, I deny their authority. I deny that they have any such com- 
mission from the Almighty to decide this question. I deny that our 
Constitution confers any such right upon them. I deny that the Bible 
confers any such right upon them. They can perform their duties 
within their sphere without my censure or my interference, and they 
are responsible to the Almighty for the manner in which they perform 
those duties ; and I must be left to perform my duties within the sphere 
of my functions, with no other responsibility than to my constituents 
and to the Almighty, without the interference of those men. I do 
not acknowledge them as an intermediate tribunal. I do not acknowl- 
ledge that they are, as the gentleman from Texas has called them, the 
vicegerents of the Almighty, and that they are to perform the duty 
of overlooking our conduct. I repudiate the whole doctrine as at war 
with the pure principles of Christianity, at war with the spirit of our 
institutions, at war with our Constitution, at war with every principle 
upon which a free government can rest." 

Section III. — The Clergymen of Chicago and the Hon. 
Stephen A. Douglas. 

A FEW weeks after the 3,050 clergymen of New England for- 
warded their protest to Congress, the clergymen of Chicago and 
the Northwest, to the number of twenty-five, also sent on a simi- 
lar protest " To the Senate and House of Representatives, in 
Congress assembled." 

The Chicago document was identical with that of New England, 
with the exception of the addition of the words, " as citizens," 
and the difference in locality. Accompanying this protest were 
several resolutions, expressive of the sentiments of the protestors, 
and in one of which they passed a censure on Mr. Douglas and 



TEE CLERGY AND HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 605 

others. To this assault Mr. Douglas made a defense, and so 
effectually has he exposed the dangers of their assumptions of 
power, that we must copy a portion of it. Mr. Douglas says : 

" With the exception of the description of your locality ' in the 
northwestern States ' instead ' of New England ' and of the interpola- 
tion of the words 'as citizens,' this protest is an exact copy of the one 
presented to the Senate from the clergymen of New England, upon 
which the debate occurred which you have condemned. After-reading 
that debate, and seeing the nature of the objections urged to the New 
Engkxnd protest, it seems that you determined to present youselves to 
the Senate in a two-fold capacity — the one ' as citizens' and the other 
'as ministers of the Gospel of Christ.' Nobody questions your right; 
no one denies the propriety of your exercising the constitutional right 
of petitioning government for redress of grievances in your capacity 
as citizens; nor can there be any well-founded objection to your add- 
ing these other words, ' as ministers of the Grospel of Jesus Christ, if 
done only as illustrative of your relations to society and of your pro- 
fession and occupation in life. This was not the obnoxious feature in 
the New England protest. The objection urged to that paper was, 
that the clergymen who had signed it did not protest in their own 
names, as clergymen, or citizens, or human beings, or in the name of 
any human authority or civil right, but they assumed the divine pre- 
rogative, and spoke to the Senate ' in the name of Almighty God !' 

" With the full knowledge that Senators, in the debate to which you 
have alluded, understood the New England protest in this light^ — and 
as asserting a divine power in the clergy of this country higher than 
the obligations of the Constitution, and above the sovereignty of the 
people and of the States — to command the Senators, by the authority 
of Heaven, and under the penalty of exposing them ' to the righteous 
judgment of the Almighty,' to vote in a particular way upon a given 
question, you now re-adopt the protest, and repeat the command in the 
identical language in which it was originally issued. This looks as 
if it- was your fixed and deliberate purpose, as clergymen, to force an 
issue upon this point with the civil and political authorities of the 
republic. If there were room for doubt or misapprehension, in this 
respect, on the face of the New England protest, you have removed 
all obscurity, and avowed the purpose distinctly and boldly in the 
resolutions which you adopted at the time you signed the protest : 

^'■'■Resolved, 1. That the ministry is the divinely-appointed institu- 



606 PULPIT POLITICS. 

tion for the declaration and enforcement of God's will upon all points 
of moral and religious truth ; and that, as such, it is their duty to re- 
prove, rebuke, and exhort, with all authority and doctrine.' 

" This resolution appears to have been adopted by you at an anti- 
Nebraska meeting (composed exclusively of clergymen, twenty-five in 
rumber), and called for the purpose of considering that question, and 
none other. It was adopted in connection with the protest, and forms 
a part of the same transaction. The protest denounces the Nebraska 
Bill ' in the name of Almighty Grod,' as 'a great lorong^ — as ' a breach 
of faith eminently injurious to the moral principle of the community,' 
and ' as exposing us to the righteous judgments of the Almighty.' The 
resolution declares ' that the ministry is the divinely -appointed institu- 
tion for the declaration and enforcement of God's will upon all points 
of moral and religious truth!' Do not the protest and the resolution 
refer to the same question, to wit, the Nebraska Bill, now pending be- 
fore Congress ? Surely you will not deny that such was your under- 
standing. You assembled to consider that question, and none other. 
You acted upon that subject, and that alone. Your resolutions were 
declaratory of the extent of your rights and powers as clergymen, and 
your protest was your action in conformity with those assumed rights 
and powers. I understand, then, your position to be this : that you are 
' ministers of the Gospel ;' that ' the ministry is the divinely-appointed 
institution for the declaration and enforcement of God's will upon all 
points of moral and religious truth ;' and this ' divinely-appointed insti- 
tution ' is empowered ' to declare' what questions of a civil, political, ju- 
dicial, or legislative character, do involve ' points of moral and religious 
truth ;' that the Nebraska Bill does involve such ' points,' and is. there- 
fore, one of the questions upon which it is the duty of this ' divinely- 
appointed institution' to 'declare and enforce God's will;' and that, 
clothed with ' all authority and doctrine,' this ' divinely -appointed 
institution ' proceeds to issue its mandates to the Congress of the United 
States 'in the name of Almighty God.' This being your position, I 
must be permitted to say to you, in all Christian kindness, that I differ 
with you widely, radically, and fundamentally, in respect to the nature 
and extent of your rights, duties, and powers, as ministers of the Gos- 
pel. If the claims of this ' divinely-appointed institution ' shall be en- 
forced, and the various public functionaries shall yield their judgments 
to your supervision, and their consciences to your keeping, there will 
be no limit to your temporal power, except your own wise discretion 
and virtuous forbearance. If your 'divinely-appointed institution' has 



THE CLERGY AND HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 607 

the power to prescribe the mode and terms for the organization of Ne- 
braska, I see no reason why your authority may not be extended over 
the entire continent, not only to the country which we now possess, but 
to all which may hereafter be acquired. 

" Nor do you propose to confine your operations to the supervision 
and direction of the action of Congress, in the organization of territorial 
governments, and the admission of new States into the Union. It is 
difficult to conceive of any matter of private or public concern, pending 
before Congress, or in the Legislatures of the different States, or in the 
judicial tribunals, which does not, quite as much as the Nebraska Bill, 
' involve some point of moral and religious truth ;' and we are informed, 
in your resolution, that 'upon all points of moral and religious truth' 
the ' ministry is the divinely-appointed institution for the declaration 
and enforcement of God's will. I do not wish to be understood as in- 
timating that it is your present purpose, through the agency of this 
' divinely -appointed institution,' to declare and enforce God's will in all 
matters aifecting our foreign policy and domestic concerns, nor that 
you intend to direct the movements of the political parties, and control 
the local and general elections throughout the country. It is enough 
to fill with alarm the mind of every patriot, and to bring sorrow and 
grief to the heart of every Christian, that you have asserted the right 
to do this in all cases, and have, in one case, attempted the exercise of 
this divine prerogative ' in the name of Almighty God.' It is true that, 
while you assert the right in the broadest terms, and propose now to 
establish a precedent which will justify its exercise in all future time, 
in your second resolution you ' disclaim all desire ' to do certain things, 
from which it might be inferred, on first vieWj that you do not intend 
to meddle with party politics, nor attempt to control the political move- 
ments of the day. This, however, turns out to be illusory, on a closer 
examination. 

" ' Resolved, 2. That while we disclaim all desire to interfere in ques- 
tions of war and policy, or to mingle in the conflicts of political parties, 
it is our duty to recognize the moral bearing of such questions and 
conflicts, and to proclaim, in reference thereunto, no less than to other 
departments of human interest, the principle of inspired truth and 
obligation.' 

" You do not ' desire to interfere in questions of war and policy.' 
Thus far I heartily approve. I rejoice to see that you are willing to 
leave the question of war where the Constitution has placed it — in the 



608 PULPIT POLITICS. 

hands of Congress, as the representatives of the people and the States 
of the Union. 

" You ' disclaim all desire,' also, ' to mingle in the conflicts of polit- 
ical parties.' This sentiment is admirable. It will meet the cordial 
approbation of every patriot and Christian. But you immediately 
follow it with the declaration that ' it is our duty to recognize the 
moral bearing of such questions and conflicts ! ' You do not desire 
to engage in war, nor to fight the battles of your country, but you do 
claim that it is your right, and, if you please, your duty, by virtue of 
your office as ministers, through the agency of this divinely-appointed 
institution, to declare, in the name of Almighty God, a war in which 
your country is engaged with a foreign power, to be immoral and un- 
righteous, although the representatives of the people and of the States, 
in pursuance of the Constitution, have declared it to be just and neces- 
sary. And this, not in the course of your ordinary pastoral duties to 
your several congregations, but ae an organized body speaking to the 
constituted authorities of the nation. I can not recognize the prin- 
ciple that, while you are protected in the enjoyment of all your rights 
as citizens, of all your just rights as ministers, you are yet released, 
by virtue of your office as ministers, from your allegiance to your 
country during war, and from your obligation of obedience to the 
Constitution and laws, and constituted authorities at all times. 

" You also say, that you consider it your duty to take cognizance 
of 'the moral bearing of the conflicts of the difierent political par- 
ties.' The moral bearing of the Democratic party, and of the Whig 
party, and of the Abolition party, are each to be recognized by your 
divinely-appointed institution ; and you then add, that it is your duty 
' to proclaim, in reference thereunto, the principle of inspired truth 
and obligation.' You propose, through your divinely-appointed insti- 
tution, to apply the test of ' inspired truth ' to each of the political 
organizations and to their respective conflicts, and ' to reprove, re- 
buke, and exhort with all authority and doctrine,' in the name of the 
great Jehovah. With all due respect for you, as ministers of the 
Gospel, I can not recognize in your divinely-appointed institution the 
power of prophecy or of revelation. I have never recognized the 
existence of that power in any man on earth during my day. . . . 
Your claims for the supremacy of this divinely-appointed institution 
are subversive of the fundamental principles upon which our whole 
republican system rests. What the necessity of Congress, if you can 
supervise and direct its conduct? Why should the people subject 



THE CLERGY AND HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 609 

themselves to the trouble and expense of electing legislatures for the 
purpose of enacting human laws, if their validity depends upon the 
sanction of your divine authority ? Why sustain a vast and complex 
judicial system, to expound the laws, administer justice, and determ- 
ine all disputes in respect to human rights, if your divinely-appointed 
institution is invested with all authority to prescribe the rule of deci- 
sion in the name of the Deity? If your pretensions be just and 
valid, why not dispense with all the machinery of human government, 
and subject ourselves, freely and unreservedly, together with all our 
temporal and spiritual interests and hopes, to the justice and mercy 
of this divinely-appointed institution ? 

" Our fathers held that the people were the only true source of all 
political power ; but what avails this position, if the constituted au- 
thorities established by the people are to be controlled and directed 
— not by their own judgment, not by the will of their constituents, 
but by the divinely-constituted power of the clergy ? Does it not 
follow that this great principle, recognized and affirmed in the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and of every state in this Union, is 
thus virtually annulled, and the representatives of the people con- 
verted into machines in the hands of an all-controlling priest- 
hood ? 

" The will of the people, expressed in obedience to the forms and 
provisions of the Constitution, is the supreme law of this land. But 
your 'office as ministers' is not provided for in the Constitution. 
The persecutions of our ancestors were too fresh in the 
memories of our revolutionary fathers for them to create, recognize, 
01 even tolerate, a church establishment in this country, clothed with 
temporal authority. So apprehensive were they of the usurpations 
of this, the most fearful and corrupting of all despotisms, whether 
viewed with reference to the pui-ity of the Church or the happiness 
of the people, that they provided in the Constitution that ' no reli- 
gious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or 
public trust under the United States.' Still, fearful that, in the process 
of time, a spirit of religious fanaticism, or a spirit of ecclesiastical 
domination, (yet more to be dreaded, because cool and calculating,) 
might seize upon some exciting political topic, and, in an evil hour, 
surprise or entrap the people into a dangerous concession of political 
power to the clergy, the first Congress under the Constitution pro- 
posed, and the people adopted, an amendment to guard against such 
a calamity, in the following words : 
89 



610 PULPIT POLITICS. 

" ' Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of reli- 
gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' 

" The doctrine of our fathers was, and the principle of the Consti- 
tution is, that every human being has an inalienable, divinely-con- 
ferred right to worship God according to the dictates of his own 
conscience; and that no earthly 'institution,' nor any 'institution' on 
earth, can rightfully deprive him of that sucred and inestimable 
privilege. 

" However, it is no part of my purpose to inquire into the extent of 
your authority in spiriti^al affairs. That is a question between you 
and your respective congregations, with which I have neither right 
nor wish to interfere. 

" All I have said, and all that I propose to say, has direct ref- 
erence to the vindication of my character and position against the 
unjustifiable assaults which you have made in regard to my of&cial 
action in the Senate. I repeat, that your assumption of power from 
the Almighty, to direct and control the civil authorities of this 
country, is in derogation of the Constitution, subversive of the prin- 
ciples of free government, and destructive of all the guarantees of 
civil and religious liberty. The sovereign right of the people to 
manage their own affairs, in conformity with the Constitution of their 
own making, recedes and disappears, when placed in subordination to 
the autJiority of a body of men, claiming, by virtue of their offices as 
ministers, to be a divinely-appointed institution for the declaration 
and enforcement of God's will upon earth." 

Section IV. — Pulpit Politics in its Practical Results. 

We have now held up the mirror to puljnt j^oliiicians, as it 
comes into our hands from some of the ablest men of the nation. 
They can behold themselves as Jefferson beheld, them, in 1812; 
and as the Senators of the United States beheld them, in 1854. 
If they do not like the' portraits, they must not again place 
themselves before the daguerreotypist. It may seem defective 
to them, but it is, nevertheless, a true picture^— a true reflection 
of the lineaments of their countenances. 

But there is another aspect to this question. Suppose, for a 
moment, that the clergyman who delves into politics may accom- 
plish some good for his party ; is not the service thus rendered 
just so much of time, talent, and energy diverted from his legi- 



PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 611 

timate duties ? and are we not to expect that his congregation 
will suffer in proportion to his neglect of their spiritual inter- 
ests ? What was the argument used to justify the organization 
of the " Business Men's Prayer Meetings," but that the clergy 
had so far lost their hold upon the confidence of the people that 
their efficiency had become greatly impaired, and laymen must 
turn their talents and graces to account, or vital religion would 
continue to decay or totally expire ? 

It is well, therefore, to turn the attention of the class of cler- 
gymen to which we refer, to the results of the secularization 
of the pulpit upon the interests of religion itself; and in doing 
this we shall not ourselves draw up the statement, but profit by 
the labors of an abler pen. And as Massachusetts has been the 
chief seat of political preaching, it is very important to have one 
of her own sons to describe its effects, after fifty years' labor 
have been performed in that department of public teaching. 
About the first of February, of the present year, the Boston 
Courier contained the following article, under the head of " Po- 
litical Preaching :" 

" Our genial and amiable cotemporary, the Saturday Evening Gaz- 
ette, says : 

" ' The fact is, from some cause or other, there seems to be a 
great falling off among our people in attending church services ; as, 
comparing the number of our population with the seatings in our 
churches, the preponderance of the former over the latter is very 
marked. Some of the clergy are trying to solve the question, but 
have not yet found the remedy.' 

" It is not remarkable that the clergy are not competent to solve 
this question ; a man is not able to see anything which is on the top 
of his own head. The fact is true beyond all controversy, and a mel- 
ancholy fact it is too. Not only in this city, but throughout this 
State — and, we fear, through most of New England — the interest in 
religion, and in the observance of religion, is declining. The attend- 
ance upon church services is comparatively meager. Practical, if not 
theoretical infidelity is spreading like a dry rot throughout the land. 
The number of men who are living virtually without God is on the 
increase. The heathen virtues of pride, self-esteem, self-reliance, 
active courage, are rising in estimation, and the Christian virtues of 



612 PULPIT POLITICS. 

meekness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, are declining. Among 
young persons, especially, of both sexes, there is a marked want of 
vital and practical Christianity, and a prevailing lack of interest in its 
ministrations and observances. The general characteristics of young 
persons are impatience of discipline, resistance to authority, a fierce 
assertion of assumed rights. To exact obedience is an outrage ; to 
yield obedience is a weakness. Restraint of all kinds is resented as a 
wrong ; and unchecked liberty — the power to do anything and every- 
thing that the natural and unregenerate heart prompts, without let or 
hinderance — is valued as the highest good of man. 

"And what is the cause of this unhappy state of things? What 
has led to all this free-thinking, and to this lawless conduct, which is 
the legitimate child of free-thinking? No one cause can explain it 
all ; but certainly the clergy themselves are in part to blame for it. 
In the tenth chapter of Leviticus, we read that Nadab and Abihu 
• offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. 
And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they 
died before the Lord.' In these words, the narrative of a transaction, 
there is also a symbolical sense, and the expression of a vital and en- 
during truth. The clergy of New England have been offering 'strange 
fire before the Lord ;' and the inevitable retribution has followed. And 
this ' strange fire ' is the vulgar fire of secular politics — the fire of 
worldly passions — which wastes and consumes the heart on which it 
feeds. In such a heart the Christian graces can no more take root 
than roses and lilies will flourish in the slag and refuse of a furnace. 
Polities are usurping the place of religion, to a deplorable extent, in 
the pulpits of New England. Sermons are degenerating into stump 
speeches. The clergy are taking a more and more active part in 
political movements. You will hardly find a political convention in 
which one or more of the most active and noisy members are not cler- 
gymen. If you enter a New England church on any Sunday in the 
year, the chances are at least even that you will hear a political 
harangue, which part of the audience will be moved to applaud, and 
part to hiss. 

" And the political opinions which are enunciated from the pulpit, 
are generally accompanied with a most offensive dogmatism and posi- 
tiveness. This is natural enough. The clergyman is regarded with 
peculiar deference, as a man removed from secular struggles and sec- 
ular stains, and set apart to break the bread of life to the people. He 
is rarely contradicted; he is treated by men as men treat women; he 



PULPIT POLITICS m ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 613 

is never subjected to an intellectual rough and tumble ; an atmosphere 
of respect surrounds him, which protects him as cotton protects dia- 
monds. Upon sacred and religious topics he has a right to speak 
with authority ; not only to soothe and heal and bless, but warn and 
rebuke and admonish ; he is false to his trust, if he do not. But 
the habit of mind thus generated is easily' transferred to secular 
themes. The priest's authoritative tone is easily assumed when he 
speaks on topics on which he and his parishioners stand on the same 
plane of observation, and where their vision is quite as likely to be as 
good as his. How common it is to see a young chick, just hatched 
from a divinity school, running about with the shell yet on his head, 
who will undertake to settle any question of administration or govern- 
ment as easily as he will pull off his glove ! The mistake is in sup- 
posing that, in regard to these problems, you can come to a satisfac- 
tory solution by some short cut of inspiration, by the intuitive moral 
sense ; whereas the contrary is notoriously the fact. There is often a 
ludicrous disproportion between the tone and manner with which 
dogmas are uttered from the pulpit, and the substantial value of the 
opinions themselves. To hear and see the preacher, one wOuld sup- 
pose that he was enunciating the oracles of God, while what he is 
really uttering is some shallow, sentimental or mischievious nonsense, 
such as might have been picked up at an infant's school, a milliner's 
shop, or a lunatic asylum. 

"What we have been saying has particular reference to the subject 
of slavery, on which this country has been growing stark mad for the 
last few years. The clergymen of New England are all, or nearly 
all, anti-slavery in sentiment and feeling. We don't object to this; 
it needs no ghost from the grave to tell us that slavery is a great 
social and economical evil, and that every patriot and every Christian 
should be glad to see it removed. But most New England clergy- 
men are also Republicans, and here the trouble begins. Republican- 
ism involves two very distinct elements : first, that slavery is an evil, 
wherein we are all agreed ; and, second, that the Republican method 
of dealing with slavery is the true one ; wherein we are not all agreed 
by any means. But the Republican clergymen can not or will not see 
the distinction. In this view, the man who is not a Republican is not 
opposed to slavery ; is pro-slavery, in short. And this narrowness 
and intolerance comes from the fact that he mistakes emotion for in- 
sight — moral instincts for intellectual perceptions — a mistake under 
which the universal New^England mind is now suffering. 



01-4 PULPIT POLITICS. 

"A religious congregation is not, and ouglit not to be formed on 
the ground of unity in political faith. The same religious truths — 
the same -warnings, expostulations, encouragements, consolations — are 
to be addressed to Whigs, Democrats, Republicans, or Native Ameri- 
cans. Before the throne of God these distinctions melt away like 
those of station, wealth, or dress. It is one of the most beautiful ele- 
ments in the Christian faith, that it brings together men who on secu- 
lar topics differ most widely. In the congregation of the over-zealous 
llepubliean clergyman there will be, or may be, some persons who are 
not Republicans. They are just as conscientious in their anti-Repub- 
licanism, as he is in his Republicanism. But they are constantly 
exposed to the chances of hearing their convictions denounced, their 
motives impugned, and having their blood stirred by insulting insinu- 
ations. They are obliged to sit still, and hear a clerical dogmatist, 
from his vantage-ground of the pulpit, attack them with flimsy argu- 
ments, whose fallacy they have long since detected, and could easily 
show, if it were a proper place for discussion. They are Sent home 
in a frame of mind anything but Sabbatical, if not muttering half- 
suppressed curses between their teeth. The natural result follows; 
they refuse to go to church where they are visited by denunciation, 
and exasperated by abuse. 

"Nor do we put the objection to political preaching solely on the 
ground that such preaching offends the earnest political convictions 
of a portion of the congregation, and thus keeps them away from 
church. The objection exists in hardly less force as to that part of 
the congregation who may agree with the preacher in his views. The 
preacher's duty is to teach religion, and not politics. The general 
sentiment of the public would discountenance a clergyman who, in- 
stead of sermons, should give essays on banking or agriculture, on 
political economy, on dietetics, on the use and abuse of medicines. 
Why should such peculiar latitude be given to partisan politics ? Lay- 
men do not wish, on Sunday, to have their thoughts disturbed, and 
their tempers tried, by the heating discussions and jarring conflicts 
of the past six days. They go into the house of God to escape from 

them. 

" 'Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares, 
Of earth and folly born,' 

is the heart's natural language. On Sunday a man seeks to clear the 
soul of the dust and soil of earth, and to garnish it with pure thoughts, 
tranquil aspirations, ethereal hopes — flowers that have sucked the 



PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 615 

dews of heaven — and how can he do this if his spiritual guide in- 
sists on shooting into the rubbish of politics ? 

" The effect upon the clergy themselves of this habit of preaching- 
politics is most injurious. It acts upon the mind in much the same 
way as dram-drinking acts upon the body. It begets a craving for 
coarse, vulgar excitements, utterly inconsistent with a proper interest 
in the appointed functions and appropriate meditations of the pas- 
toral office. The more engaged the clergyman becomes in political 
issues, and the success of this or that political party, the' more coldly 
and languidly will he turn to religious themes and spiritual contem- 
plations. Once upon a time, a worldly man, who was wholly absorbed 
in the accumulation of property, was gently remonstrated with by 
his clergyman, and reminded of the necessity of preparing for another 
world. 'Don't talk to me of another world,' was the reply, 'one 
world at a time is as much as I can attend to.' There is a frank- 
ness, a freedom of hypocrisy, in this answer, which we like. It in- 
cludes an obvious truth. No man, be he clergyman or layman, can 
be wholly absorbed in the interests and issues of this world, and leave 
due space in his heart for those of another:- You can not serve God 
and politics, any more than you can serve God and mammon. 

'* To general strictures like the above there are, of course, reason- 
able qualifications and exceptions. They are not true of every sect ; 
still less are they true of every clergyman in any sect. But we appeal 
to the great body of laymen in our community — especially those who 
are no longer young — if there be not too much truth in what we have 
said. That the spirit of religion is decaying, and the influence of the 
clergy is declining, are melancholy facts. We are sorry for both ; 
as sorry for the latter as- the former. Both facts are symptoms of 
the same disease ; and the same remedy is needed for both." 

The author designs no unkind attack upon the clergy, in gen- 
eral, in the present work. Those who knoAV him best, will believe 
him incapable of such an act; on the contrary, they know the 
better part of his life, and all his pecuniary means, have been 
devoted to a " well-meant effort " to supply the churches Avith 
sound theological reading ;* and that he commenced his efforts to 
afford a safeguard against the sad errors in religion which were 
coming in like a flood, in connection with the movements for 

"■■■ The Calvinistic Family Library is here referred to, a work commenced and 
prosecuted by the author for several years. 



616 PULPIT POLITICS. 

social and moral reform in general, and of philanthropic effort 
in behalf of the African race in particular. His relation to the 
Churches, as a working layman, has afforded to the author the 
opportunity of investigating the general movements of Chris- 
tians for the evangelization of the world; and has enabled him 
to trace their missionary movements, and bring out the results 
in the most interesting contrasts presented in the close of the 
third chapter. 

But that relation has enabled him to do more than this. It has 
afforded him opportunities for observation as to the practical re- 
sults of "political preaching" upon the usefulness of the clergy- 
men who have indulged in the practice ; and he must say, in 
truth, as a general thing, that the devil can not have been much 
alarmed at the rate in which they were making inroads upon his 
kingdom. They were, mostly, much better qualified to divide 
and distract congregations than to build them up ; much more 
successful in generating angry disputes among their parishioners, 
than in promoting brotherly love and kindly co-operation in car- 
rying on their Master's work. "By their fruits ye shall know 
them ;" and lest some might suppose that the unfavorable opinion 
here expressed proceeds from personal dislikes or prejudices, a 
few quotations from the sayings of some of the clergy themselves, 
will show that we have not underrated their want of efficiency in 
the propagation of the Gospel. At a convention held at Xenia, 
Ohio, a few years since, composed of delegates from the Scottish 
American Presbyterian Churches, to lament over the ruins of 
Zion, and project measures for the rebuilding of her broken-down 
walls, the following declarations Avere made in the course of the 
remarks of the speakers : 

•• We liave been watching sins in sister Churches more than those 

coming in on us from the world We ought to watch the 

signs of the times more closely, and fall in more carefully and faith- 
fully with the movings of Providence in the world around us. We 
have not done our duty."* 

" We must ^t on God, and not trust too much in self. We must 

* Church Memorial, p. 234. 



PULPIT POLITICS IN ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 617 

not go out of the means He has instituted, and substitute some ancient 
tradition or new invention."* 

" That covetousness which is idolatry has reached the ministers of 
the Gospel as well as the farmers and business men of the land."f 

"Rev. * * * said, the want of an intelligent faith in God produces 
deadness in the Church. He mentioned several things in illustration 
of this, viz., ministers' distrust of God to give them a support or com- 
fortable livelihood The want of discipline, through fear 

that there will not be an increase in numbers Immense 

multitudes of souls are going to perdition, and we are asleep. "| 

" Religion has not been made a personal matter, and brought home 
with sufficient directness and earnestness to the consciences of sin- 
ners. "§ 

"The Church, the ministry, and members of the Church, have been 
trying to serve both God and mammon. "|| 

" Schism is a sin of the day. A divided Church is a weakened 
society. The standard of piety is so low among us that if we did not 
see men baptized at the Church, or see them at the communion-table, 
we would not be able to tell who are Christians, and who are not. We 
can not distinguish them from the men of the world in the market or 
other places. "^[ 

" One favorable symptom of the time is a general dissatisfaction both 
in and outside the Church. They feel that there is something wrong. 
This is the feeling, not of one, but of all — not in one locality, but in 
all localities. . . . Other nations, once enjoying the Gospel, have 
now given it up. . . . Fifty years ago, the Scotch Presbyterian 
influence had a controlling power; now rationalism, infidelity, and 
skepticism abound. What have we to meet this ? Take all the 
Churches represented here, and Old and New School Presbyterians, 
if you please, and there is a decrease in the number of theological 
students, while our population is increasing. A famine, not of bread 
and water, but of hearing the Word. What is the cause ? Some say, 
because ministers are kept at starvation prices. Parents turn their 
children to some lucrative employment. This is a very business-like 
view of the matter. One that is prevalent, and ministers give strength 
to it — the secular press takes it up, and even fiction lends its aid, all 
warning our youth against entering the ministry. After all, this is 

* Church Memorial, p. 235. t Ibid., p. 235. | Ibid., p. 236. 

§ Ibid., p. 237. II Ibid., p. 237. ^ Ibid., p. 238. 



618 PULPIT POLITICS. 

not the cause. Offer them such salaries as bishops of England receive, 
all would be vain to raising up mirf5sters in the Church. The cause is 
the declining, dead state of matters in the Church. Show us a revived 
Church, and you will find plenty offering themselves to the work of 
the ministry. See how it was after the day of Pentecost. They or- 
dained elders in every city. Isaiah is an illustration — a seraphim 
touched his lips with a coal from the altar ; that coal was love ; when 
he had touched his lips, a voice from the throne on high said, Whom 
shall I send, and who will go for us? The Lord reads to him his 
commission. All terrors from poor salaries not to be compared to 
the terribleness of that commission. There was no drawback when the 
call had touched his lips and heart. Here is what we need ; we need 

our young men prepared as Isaiah was 

" Let me ask you to look at our want of success. The Gospel min- 
istry is for the conversion of sinners, and for the perfecting of the 
saints. How little has it accomplished in our hands ! You have felt 
this subject, every renewed heart has wept over it; sinners shun our 
ministry. How many in a year follow you to your closets? The most 
of us will have to say, not one. And what advancement in holiness 
in our respective congregations ? In self-denial and that godly life 
which should distinguish the Christian ? We have not been success- 
ful. What has been the cause? Will not the Spirit give the bless- 
ing? True, but can a ministry under the influence of faith be so 
unsuccessful? Look back to the day of Pentecost. As long as the 
Pentecostal spirit remained, there was continued success. When the 
reverse came, there came a reverse effect." 

At a meeting of the same parties, subsequently, in Philadel- 
phia, the following remarks Avere made : 

" What are we doing? There are hundreds of young men in our 
congregations, but how many of them are brought forward to preach 
the Gospel ? Perhaps not one ! They dribble into God's treasury 
fifty or one hundred dollars for missionary operations, but not one 
soul for God's ministry."^ 

"Rev. * * * 's impression was, that the Church's sin was the mind 
being withdrawn fro7n the great principles of salvation ^ '\ 

" I think it then of the first moment to get our minds affected with 
this truth, that we, not this or the other people, or the Church here 

* Church Memorial, p. 29G. t Ibid., p. 297. 



PULPIT POLITICS IX ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS. 619 

or there, but we ourselves, are in a spiritually lifeless conditiou. The 
evidences we have before us. A state of death is a state of in- 
action." * 

" The rubbish must be removed, and Zion must be rebuilt. There 
will be a separating from the nations. So it was in the Pentecostal. 
Ministers disconnected themselves from everything else. They would 
not even consent to distribute gold and silver, but deacons must be 
chosen for this very work. Look at the result. The people came 
forward and laid their possessions at the Apostles' feet. A man would 
be accounted a madman in this land who would do as these did 
under the Apostles' ministry. Let us take up our cross and follow 
Jesus." f 

But we must hold our hand. These penitential utterances are 
sufficient to subserve our purpose ; which is to show that a pre- 
vailing sentiment exists that the Gospel ministry of the present 
day are failing to come up to the standard of efficiency required 
by the vows which are upon them. But in this, as in much else, 
there is, we believe, a great amount of misconception on the part 
of the ministry, as well as upon the part of the public. A min- 
ister considers his life unsuccessful, unless he can show such 
brilliant successes as shall demonstrate clearly that he is a bright 
particular star. This result may flatter his pride, but it is not 
God's plan of promoting the kingdom of Christ in this world. 
It is the quiet men who are the successful men, though they 
may die without being conscious of having wrought much good; 
and in thus dying, they demonstrate the great truth connected 
with God's moral government of the world. His rule of action 
is this: "My glory I will not give to another, nor my praises 
to graven images ; " and the minister who aims at personal glo- 
rification in his ministry, must expect to be disappointed. He 
may do good ; but, as a Paul may plant, and an Apollos water, 
yet it is God who giveth the increase, so God will take all the 
glory of the world's redemption to himself. 

A remark here, and we have done. How does it come, that 
a body of men who exhibit so much humility in the practice of 
their sacred profession, should be so daring in their claims of a 
right to dictate in civil affairs ? * 

* Church Memorial, p. 298, t Ibid., p. 311. 



CONCLUSION. 

Our labors are now terminated. Had not so many more pages 
than was anticipated been filled by the materials used, we should 
have closed with a somewhat extended representation of the points 
proved in our book. But, as the passing comments upon each 
subject discussed are often quite full, Ave must leave the intelligent 
reader to make his own generalizations. A few propositions, how- 
ever, out of many that are fully demonstrated, may be noted, to 
serve as guides to those who wish to gain an intelligible view of 
the great problem before the country — the restoration of the Con- 
stitution, and the reconstruction of the Union, through the co- 
operation of the loyal population in the revolted States, and those 
who may return to their allegiance. 

This, as we read events, is the great aim of the President, and 
is the only scheme for saving the country that has the merit of 
being both practicable and beneficent. A reference to a few of 
the points proved in this volume, will show that every other 
measure proposed can bring nothing but ruin in its train. Among 
other things, we have proved : 

1. That the British theories on slavery are untrue, as applied 
to America; and that slavery is not necessarily a bar to the 
evangelization of the African race, but may be made greatly sub- 
servient to the promotion of that object. 

2. That the ecclesiastical legislation, based upon the supposed 
truthfulness of the British theories, has been uncalled for, injudi- 
cious, and destructive to the harmony of the Church, and the peace 
of the country. 

3. That, but for the ecclesiastical legislation at the North on 
the question of slavery, political abolitionism could never have 
had a basis upon which to fcfund its action; and that, but for these 

(620) 



CONCLUSION. 621 

two causes combined — ecclesiastical and political abolitionism — 
the South would have had no cause of alarm for the safety 3f its 
constitutional rights, and would have felt no necessity of defending 
itself against aggressions from the North. 

4. That the early anti-slavery writers, in their efforts to prove 
that slavery was sinful, were driven to the necessity of denying 
that the Apostles of Christ understood their duties in relation to 
Roman slavery ; and that, by denying that the teachings of the 
Apostles are a proper guide to us now, on American slavery, they 
were laying the basis for the rejection of the Scriptures as infal- 
lible guides upon other moral questions, and thus promoting doc- 
trines of infidel tendency. 

5. That the converts to Christianity among the African race, 
in all the mission fields outside of the United States, are more 
than two hundred thousand less than the colored converts within 
the slave States ; and that the Christian character of the converts 
in the slave States is at least equal to that of the converts in 
the Protestant missions anywhere throughout heathendom, 

6. That the colored church-membership, in the slave States, is 
nearly ten times greater in number than the converts in all the 
foreign missions of all the American Protestant churches ; and 
that it is almost double the whole number of converts in all the 
heathen missions under the care of all the churches of Protestant 
Christendom. 

7. That the whole of the white membership in both branches 
of the General Assembly Presbyterian Church, in 1859, fell short 
of the number of the colored church-members in the slave States, 
to the extent of more than fifty thousand; and that the member- 
ship in the Scottish American Presbyterian Churches, in 1861, fell 
short of the number of the colored membership by more than 
three hundred and eighty thousand; and yet, these Churches 
were the first to pronounce slavery a barrier to African evangeli- 
zation ! 

8. That emancipation does not necessarily improve the moral 
and physical condition of the colored race, but, on the contrai-y, 
in many instances, it has been injurious and ruinous ; that care- 
ful moral training alone, under suitable constraint, can elevate 



622 PULPIT POLITICS. 

the colored people, whetlier in bondage or in freedom ; and tliat 
as the Gospel is extensively preached to the slaves of the South, 
and with eminent success, the Churches can find no justification 
for attempting to interrupt that work by emancipation. 

9. That the African race, wherever fully emancipated, and left 
free to act — though capable of fitful labor to the extent of sup- 
plying the actual necessaries of life — have proved themselves 
ivJiolly unreliable in the cultivatioyi of staple productions, such as 
now enter so largely into the commerce and manufactures of the 
world ; that when thus set free, and left unaided by the superior 
race, they invariably show themselves incapable of making any 
intellectual or moral progress ; and that this result has been so 
uniform, and so universal, that emancipation, in the southern 
States, must necessarily be expected to lead to an almost total 
suspension of the culture of their staple products, and the relapse 
of the colored population itself back again toward its original 
barbarism. 

10. That the southern States have been increasing the annual 
exports of the products of their soil, until it had reached, in 1860, 
the value of more than two hundred millions of dollars, while the 
northern States supplied, of similar products, for export, not more, 
at any time, than fifty millions of dollars ; and that the dissolution 
of the Union, or the emancipation of the slaves, would be equally 
fatal to the prosperity of the North, as it would deprive it of this 
immense amount of the elements of its foreign commerce. 

11. That the success of abolitionism would prostrate, for gen- 
erations to come, the agricultural interests of the West, by de- 
priving its people of the only practicable market they have ever 
possessed ; that the success of secession, in addition to affecting 
this market injuriously, would leave the Western agriculturist 
liable to the payment of tribute to the Confederacy, for the use 
of the Mississippi, and subject the country to the frequent recur- 
rence of civil wars ; and that neither emancipation nor secession 
can be allowed, as either would bring ruin upon the Northwest, 
as well as upon the country at large. 

12. That with the light we now possess on the " Cotton Ques- 
tion," there can no longer be any doubt that the restoration of 



CONCLUSION. 523 

the Union would at once enable the United States to resume and 
perpetuate the monopoly of the cotton markets, so as to make the 
world again tributary to us for that commodity, and restore to the 
Northwest its former prosperity, by once more putting it in pos- 
session of the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the profitable 
markets the Southwest affords for Northwestern productions. 

13. That as the slave population of the South have made 
greater moral progress than the same number of Africans any- 
w^here under the sun, whether slaves or freemen ; and as, by the 
Constitution, the government is bound to protect all loyal men 
in possession of their slaves ; there can be no argument for 
emancipation based upon the grounds of humanity, and much less 
can there be any justification of it upon Constitutional grounds : 
because the liberation of one-half the slaves, or those belonging 
to the disloyal, would render the remainder worthless in the pre- 
sence of so many free negroes, and thus the innocent be involved 
in ruin along with the guilty — the government thus showing 
itself unable to protect its loyal citizens. 

14. That the conservative men, both North and South, in 
allowing two antagonistic sectional factions to keep the country 
in a continual uproar, and, ultimately, to involve it in civil war, 
have been criminally remiss in the discharge of their Constitu- 
tional obligations, and are now justly sufi'ering the penalty of 
their apathy to the safety of the Union. 



THE END. 



/ 

624 PULPIT POLITICS. 



APPENDIX. 



In presenting a fifth edition to the public, an opportunity is offered 
for presenting a little of the additional information collected since 
the work first appeared. 

The latest Report at hand of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South, taken in connection with the estimates for the Border Con- 
ferences for 1860, show, that immediately before the breaking out of 
the war, the whole number of members and probationers among the 
colored people of the Southern states was 224,348, being a much 
larger membership than is given in the body of this work. 

Later information, in relation to the Baptists, show that they, also, 
have had a considerable increase over the returns used in making up 
the total number of colored converts in the Southern states. The 
whole number, at the outbreak of the war, it now appears, could not 
have been less than 514,000. The reader will supply these figures 
instead of those used in the work in all contrasts drawn. 

It must seem strange and unaccountable to those who have so long 
listened to the theorizing of the abolition press, to find that, after 
nearly fifty years' labor, by the American Churches in the Foreign 
Field, they can count but about 44,500 members among the free ne- 
groes, while the Churches South can number more than a half million ! 

And what is still more startling, and demands the most rigid scru- 
tiny, is the fact, that the Churches which have been most zealous in 
promoting abolition at home, have had the least success in African 
Evangelization abroad. Take, as an example, the Methodist mission 
in Liberia. A society was organized in that field forty-two years 
ago, and more than a half million of dollars has been expended upon 
that mission, and yet, in 1862, the Missionary Board can report only 
sixty-four native memhers in the whole of their churches throughout 
Liberia. Take also the mission of the United Presbyterian Church 
in Trinidad among the free negroes of that British Island. It has 
been organized for twenty years, and, by the last report at hand, it 
numbers only six converts. For additional particulars on this subject, 
the reader is referred to the body of the work. 



